Dear Diary
by BloodInkLilacQuill
Summary: Snape thinks Harry is writing bad things about him when he catches his own name in Harry's book, curious he enchants the book that he can see anything written, what he finds is here, inside these metaphorical pages... nonslash mentor
1. Day 0

**This is a DAILY story, it will be updated on a regular bases, the time line is day-to-day alike to ours. For this reason though, the entries will not always be as long as you would like but they will be consistent. The timeline is whenever Snape reads the book, (don't worry I never have him take longer then six days to read again). **

**One more thing Severes is the name of the hero, Severus is Severus Snape, its not a spelling mistake its part of the story. You'll notice a lot of names are off just slightly when he's writing in the story, this is, well read and you'll get it ;)  
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**Please R&E, Read and Enjoy!**

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><p>Day 0<br>A boy with messy black hair and vibrant green eyes sat cross legged writing calmly into the very last page of a book he was already changed into his 'muggle' clothes, gray pants with a red sweater and his trunk and bird cage were already loaded onto the train. Harry sat back for a moment taking the moment to blow onto his work in hopes the ink would dry faster, he knew he had to get going soon the train would be leaving in only another half hour but, it was tradition to complete the last page on the last hour being at the school. Harry was in the castle garden leaning against the ruins of some building long forgotten. It was the same place he had sat every year since first year or first volume, currently he was completing volume three. Volume four was right at his side ready to begin in just a moments' time.

_'Severes left in regret and despair fearing he would never again see his homeland...'_ he wrote.

"And what is that Mr Potter?" Asked a cold voice from above and ultimately behind him it was only then that a dark shadow appeared above him. He jumped forward, away from the voice he knew so well. "Come now, I read my name." Severus Snape said icily, he did not doubt for an instant that he had caught the young boy writing bad things about him, probably to share with the other children.

"Turn it over to me." Potter shook his head so Severus jumped down from the ledge he had been standing on, actually trying to gather herbal ingredients when he had caught the young boy in the act. Potter stood up defiantly, clutching the book close to him. In a swift movement Snape swiped, not the book in his arms but the one still laying on the ground and opened it. He was disappointed to find it blank. He pulled out his wand but something made him hesitate, as habit Potter's finger was keeping the page he had just been writing on, and taking a closer look, Snape could tell that he had been on the very last page of the book. Using wandless magic he tapped the book, of course, nothing appeared.

"Very well." He said passing the book back to the boy. "Go along Potter." He ordered, spitting 'potter' out like a rotten fruit. Harry ran off faster then a bolt of lightening, ironic really.

Later that day

Harry potter stepped off of the Hogwarts Express. The Dursleys had been warned that he would be there at precisely 11, he had been offered drives but did not wish to risk punishments so he refused. And so he was forced to wait, and wait, an hour went by, then nearly two. It became apparent that the Dursleys' were not coming. Harry wandered around until he found a driver driving almost near the Dursleys, or at least in the same town. It would still be quite the walk though. The driver had been named Lucy and had even helped get his stuff inside the back of the truck. Having to walk there the rest of the way though, that had been horrid, it had taken him until nine that night to finally get there and when he finally got in Petunia sent him to his room without so much as a hello or even supper, not even an excuse as to why they had not arrived.

Adventure:

_Day 0 (Sat)_  
><em>Already missing his homeland, Sir Severus stepped off of his great dragon. The land of Vernane forbade dragons and so he was forced to await the golden chariot the king had sent for him. And so he waited, and waited, a day went past then nearly another and it became clear that the king had sent no great chariot. As resourceful as ever, Sir Severus managed to barter for a horse, the only one the innkeeper owned. She was a nice mare named Lucy and perfect for the task. Once the king heard that his chariot had not made it he was indeed very upset but all that could wait as they threw a large banquette in honor of the great hero, Sir Severus. He was not fooled by their kindness though, he knew that it was just a pretense, the king would soon reveal his true plan. It was not for kindness that Sir Severus had been brought there but for redemption and the safety of his homeland he would do whatever he had to do. Sir Severus knew that he had to do whatever the king wanted for the next 60 days or he would never be allowed to see his homeland again. It was a penance for what he had done and he accepted the punishment with dread but compliance as the deed he had done was so bad he deserved every unhappiness and task. Tomorrow he knew, the work would begin and the king would relish in watching Sir Severes's misery.<em>

Harry stopped, pausing, yep that had been pretty much it, he closed the book and turned off the light, his stomach growled in the night but he ignored it. Thinking about the day he had had from the moments off the train to now. He did not know why he kept writing these books, perhaps he'd publish them one day, probably not. It was just something he had always done whenever he could sneak a book away from Dudley's vast pile in his room. The beginning of summer when he was ten about to turn eleven, Petunia had found his collection and taken pride in burning them right in front of him but not before reading every word of his personal thoughts to both Uncle Vernen, Dudley and all of Dudley's friends. For months he had stopped writing all together, what was the point? But then as though it were fate, Dudley opened the door one night and chucked a book at Harry's head, from then on he had been more careful, not to write anything too recognizable, he had really chanced it with a name like 'the land of Vernane' but aside from that he felt he remained ambiguous.

Snape:

Snape sat down after his busy day the kids to kick off the land, the potions to prepare for the next day so many things to be done he had not had a chance to sit all day. His bones felt good getting to rest at last. He was just about to open the book when he hesitated, he already knew what the kids had to say about him, did he really want it so strongly confirmed? He thought it over a few moments then decided, yes, he wanted to know what Potter had to say about him. He opened the book and read the short chapter, then he closed the book.

Why on earth would he chose his most hated professors' first name for a hero?

That was pitiful he was writing a fantasy story, sheesh, he felt sheepish and childish for even casting the spell now, he put the book away under a pile of magazines for potions and went to bed unsure why he felt so disappointed.


	2. Day 4

Day 4

Harry sighed, he had just had a horrible four-day start to summer vacation. To start with, Dudley had started a band that would practice every Monday, all day until school started back up. In the band was seemingly every friend that Dudley ever had that wanted to beat Harry up, there were seven members in all. He was still trying to find a way out and away from them every Monday. He tried making them snacks to eat rather then beating him up, it hadn't worked and he now sported a cut ear from a wickedly sharp ring that one of them had on. Doing the shopping had not worked, he had been punished for not completing his chores, all of which were impossible to complete when you were running for your life and getting beaten up, but of course Harry hadn't said that. First band practice had been terrible, they hadn't even tried to play anything, they just beat him up, mostly punching and kicking him around and making Harry miserable.

But then he had discovered that Dudley had a new crush, her name was Natalie and she lived across their backyard. Whats more is he found out as Dudley was talking to her, through the backyard gate, she apparently dislikes him, even Harry could see it, but Dudley was blind to her suggestions, completely refused to hear her kind rejections and dismissals.

Upon noticing Harry, Dudley blushed and said he had to go then ran into the house, as though what Harry thought had ever been important to Dudley. He then came to Harry's rooms that night and ordered, yes ordered, Harry to follow her around all the next day to see what she was like, take notes of any hobbies, interests etc... At first Harry had refused which resulted in Harry being pinned down and painfully pinched until he relented.

So after a night of restless sleeping, intruding on another's privacy was something that just went against Harry's grain, he was up at the crack of dawn and sitting in the tree outside her window. She rolled over a few times but other then that, nothing, she was the sort to sleep in a bit. He had to get down and make the family breakfast and when he returned she was just getting out of the shower, she was fully clothed and blowdrying her hair. She was very beautiful, perfect features etc, very thin though but athletically so. She had bright sky blue eyes, dark brown hair and skin the colour of peaches and creme pudding.

She put on her necklace last, the importance of it was missed by Harry but he gathered it ment something to her because she squeezed it in her fist with her eyes closed as though making a wish, and then her day began, the girl had four younger sisters and two brothers, an older brother and a baby brother, aside from the older brother who left for work at about six in the morning, not one was above the age of six. There was no sign of her dad, not even leaving for work, but she had a mom with a broken leg.

She, the girl was all over the house all at once, by far the busiest person he had ever met, or spied on, and a heavy multi-tasker. She burped the baby as she chased three kids into their rooms, he wasn't sure if it was the safest thing to do, run with a little baby but she was really good at it, multitasking he meant. And then she finaly got them all down for a nap she left for some shopping, her mother yelling for some Gingerale from the couch.

Harry followed her, it was easy since she walked in the direction of the store. But once she neared the store, she took a wrong turn, at first Harry thought she had gotten lost but then she went to a house, right up to the door and knocked on it. A polite tall lady answered and she was shown in. Harry could have smacked his head, he had to climb another tree. As he neared the window he heard muffled voices. But just as he reached the window she was on her way back down, he was glad to accommodate, the branch creaked and groaned with his weight and he doubted it would have held him very long anyway.

The rest of her day had gone normal, she came back with everything she needed, including the Gingerale and was just in time to allow her cat back inside the house and for the baby to start crying. The rest of the house was soon up as well and the chaos began again. By the time she went to bed even Harry was exhausted, and he had thought his chores were rough. He went to bed feeling better then most nights at the Dursleys.

He hadn't gotten in trouble because Dudley had told Petunia that Harry was doing something for him all day so they hadn't minded. Before he could sleep though, Dudley had come in and demanded a full account for the day, Harry told him everything, even reluctantly the house she had visited so oddly.

The next day though, Dudley had made a demand, despite Harry's schedule being pretty full what with chores and all. He demanded Harry steal Natalie's' cat and keep it hidden so that they could search for it together he also demanded that Harry sneak into her bedroom and take something personal, so that he could pretend to find and return it.

Dudley said he preferred it be the locket her grandmother gave her, the locket that never left her neck unless she was in the shower. Harry nodded, not consent but in understanding, so that is why the necklace was so important to her. Dudley also made one last demand, that Harry find the guy she likes and why she liked him over Dudley.

Harry went to sleep thinking the same thing, Dudley had really changed, not mentally or personality wise, but physically, he was no longer the whale of a kid he once was, he was well toned and he had heard from one of the band members, a total 'babe-catcher'. He had also told her he came from a very wealthy family and could really clean himself up for the ladies when he chose to. To this Harry rolled his eyes and recieved a sound punch in the arm for his lack of control over his expressions.

_Day 1 (Sun)_  
><em>Sir Severes came out of his rooms early that day, ready to get the 60 days over with so that he could return to his homeland forgiven of all past wrong doing for another year. <em>  
><em>Speaking to a servent was forbidden but he managed to overhear from a maidservant that there was a gang of evil goblins pestering the neighboring towns and decided he would check it out. It took all day to get there, servey the tracks and ensure they truly were goblins, then come back. Sure he could get something done about this Sir Severes went to the king to request some men to help him. To his surprise the king laughed and told him to leave the town alone. He grew very disappointed when he found out this had been going on for some time, and that the king himself had sanctioned it, as long as he got a cut of the loot. Disgusted but without choice, he was forced to ignore the evil goblins, or was he? <em>

_Day 2 (Mon)_  
><em>Sir Severes came out of his rooms quickly that second day, the goblins were said to attack today and so he wanted to be extra prepared. Sir Severes tried everything he could think of, leaving food at the edge of the forest to placate the goblins, so they would have no reason to attack the villages and still they attacked again that night. It was decided another course of action would need to be taken. He then tried to stay in the town as a deterrent but the king demanded Sir Severes's services and so he had to let the town suffer, for now... But he gave his word he would return to free the people of their bondage and the pillaging.<em>  
><em>Sir Severes gave the people a bell, that they could summon help whenever they had need and a great army from his homeland would appear, ready to help at a moments call, but ready to also vanish without a trace so that the king would not give the villagers trouble for calling another country for aid. <em>

_Day 3 (tues)_  
><em>All morning Sir Severes was forced into manual labour meant to humiliate the knight. But he was not starved, he still was permitted lunch and so it was that Sir Severes was just getting back from his lunch when he came upon the prince and a maid whispering to each other, he was about to go the other way when he overheard the prince demand the girl like him. Curious he stopped to listen, the maid said she wanted nothing to do with the prince which astonished the prince and Sir Severes both. Without a reason why she left with a curtsy and vanished to her chores. The prince caught sight of Sir Severes and both knew there would be trouble.<em>

_Day 4 (Wed)_  
><em>Sir Severes came out the next morning with an odd request of the king, the prince had demanded Sir Severes's services for the day. He was half expecting the prince to demand to be fanned or some other nonsense but instead the prince had something else entirely in mind. He ordered Severes to discretely follow the maid from the day before, find out if she had another love in her life.<em>

_Sir severes was not allowed to refuse and so he accepted. At first the day was pretty boring, the maiden got water from the well, brought it up for the queens bath, all fourteen buckets full, brought the family breakfast, cleaned all the royal bedrooms. But then, right after she had given the royal family their lunch, she made a trip to the market, finally something interesting. She walked up to a house and knocked on the door, looking around as though she were doing something really bad. She did notice Severes, her eyes met his and she was about to walk away from the door when it opened and instead she slipped through the door and slammed it shut._

_Interesting, thought Severes. He went up to a crack in the window but could not see anything but he knew she was not alone by the muffled voices._

_Very interesting, she stayed there for over an hour before leaving and going about her ordinary chores... _  
><em>When finally the door did open she came out and around the corner so fast that she ran right into Severes, she dropped what she had been carrying and they both knelt to pick it up, to Severes's surprise it was a a beautiful flute with the head of a cat, it had slipped out and fallen to the ground on impact, it was the likes of which a mere servent could never afford, Severes suspected the maid to be thief but he held his judgments to himself. She blushed and hid the flute but Severes had managed a pretty good look at it. <em>

_The prince demanded a retelling of everything that day and grew very interested in the flute, he demanded that Severes steal it somehow but if caught the prince wanted no blame to come to himself._

Snape entered the room quickly, he was running late and he did not want to miss the carriage to Hogsmead. Trilawny was riding as well which meant if he did not have anything to read she was assume it an invitation to talk, and talk, and talk to him. A shiver went down his spine and he grabbed a nice thick magazine from the bottom of the pile before running out the door.

Only once in the carriage did he recognize the book. 'This is going to be a long ride indeed' there was no way he was going to read that book, the kid had probably thought up a thousand ways to kill him or something.  
>Trilawney's moony voice rang inside Snapes head like a brass gong. "Oh good your not busy! I knew you wouldn't be, I also knew you'd be late... oh your reading? Too bad..."<br>Snape held the book up and engrossed in the pages, anything to get away from that wackjob. Snape had not read anything from the book beyond that first day and so was not surprised to find several pages were full of the sloppy writing he had come to know as Potter's.

Severus Snape was so inside the book he stayed reading it even a few minutes later when the carriage had arrived and Trilawny had left just to finish it. He was surprised, Potter could write a decent story when he wanted to it was no great work of art but Snape had a weakness for stories with a moral lesson inside them, and he was intrigued to find out what it was that Sir Severes had done that he was now repenting for it. Had choosing his potions-master teachers name been an accident or coincidence? Or was he saying something about Snape himself?


	3. Day 5

**Alright! Next chaps up and here, I hope you enjoy it! Pleas Read and Enjoy!**

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><p>Snape walked into his rooms, he had been waiting all day to read the next part of Sir Severes's journey, he felt almost like a little kid again, the anticipation for the next part to the story was killing him. He opened the book and flipped to the newest entry.<p>

_Day 5 (Thurs)_  
><em>Reluctantly, Sir Severes took the flute. Wanting no further part of the princes scheme he left and went into the market, still not allowed to leave the grounds, under the kings order, he could only visit the market or explore the garden which was full of royals and other snobbish people he found too boring to communicate with. None were like the royals in his country, the kind and generous people who helped and were pleasant to talk to.<em>

_So he went to the market, and wandered around, watching the people mostly, but then he came upon the house that the maiden had acted to peculiarly about. He was bored enough to talk with strangers, he went up to the door and nearly knocked until he saw the door handle already turning, he barely concealed himself behind the porch pole before the door opened and out came the maiden, and another fellow who stayed in the shadows. His voice was deep, and strong, Severes assumed the man to be very tall and muscular, though he could be wrong. They spoke of their undying love, the man had heard the prince had fallen in love with her and thought she should consider his offer more seriously before making a decision. She refused and said the decision was made. Finally, Severes just had to see him, he snuck a peek and gasped in horror._

_It was a beast, a great big scaly beast with no nose and skin missing from his face._  
><em>"Wow," Sir Severes said uneasily, he had come across many beasts before but in this land all the beasts were evil<em>  
><em>"He's good!" The maiden said, holding Severes away from the beast.<em>  
><em>"Really?" He was at first incredulous, but within seconds had gotten over the shock and was then subject to questioning and being questioned.<em>  
><em>"You chose this, ah beast, -beg your pardon- over the prince?" Asked the knight<em>  
><em>"I have, he's kind and gentle." The maiden explained, "And I love him very much."<em>  
><em>"Well then you will have to leave, or the prince will have your heads, he is not a forgiving prince in fact much the opposite."<em>

_It was well into the night that he finally got back to his rooms, the prince would not be pleased that Sir Severes had failed him so miserably but he for one, felt good about what he had done, by the time anyone noticed they were gone they would be in his homeland._

_Snape closed the newest entry, he had not been disappointed, beauty and the beast was a good lesson to morality, one that not many children learned these days._

Harry  
>So once again at eight-thirty, Harry was outside her bedroom window watching her sleep, she rolled over twice as though getting restless in her sleep and then she rolled right out of bed and got up in a swift but awekward movement. Stumbling and rubbing her eyes she went into the bathroom and closed the door, not all the way, Harry was grateful for that, her bathroom door creaked awfully he had noticed. He was half in the window when her hand appeared around the door, she put the chain with the locket around the door handle and then he heard the water turn on. Carefully he snuck across the room and grabbed the locket.<br>"Whatcha doin'?" Asked a loud little voice behind him, he spun around to see the oldest of the younger sisters, he hadn't heard her name but she was a cute little thing, large green eyes, sandy blond hair, teddy bear at her side.  
>"Um... Well you see I need this so that I can return it to your sister later."<br>A voice came from behind him and he nearly shrank in terror and shame. It was her, at her sisters voice she had come out of the shower without stopping the water, like any big sister would do for a little one so young. "Why?"  
>He turned around. "Please don't be mad, but Dudley likes you and he wanted to return something important to you for acting like such a jerk the last time he saw you."<br>A smile graced her face and she nodded. "Fine, but this time, use the stairs."  
>"Oh I also have to steal your cat so youll spend the day with him." Harry said as he was about to leave, this time through the door.<br>"Lucky you told me, I would not have noticed, Jesse comes and goes so often I would not have noticed if she had not been here."  
>"Right, you brought her in, I forgot to mention that." Harry felt dumb now of course stealing her cat wouldn't do anything, it was an outdoor cat.<br>"How long have you been watching me, and how much did you tell him?" She said her eyes narrowing on him.  
>"Gotta go bye!" Harry ran out of the room and down the stairs, the cat was asleep on the last stair and he swiped her as he ran out. He did not stop until he had returned to the house and stuffed the surprised cat into the cupboard under the stairs.<p>

The rest went on swimmingly until the cat got away, Aunt Petunia had noticed the odd scratching in the cupboard under the stairs and opened the door, the cat as scared as it was scratched Petunia on the leg as it darted past her and through the open window. Harry had gotten into trouble for that, as though he had enchanted the cat to attack Petunia. Unfortunately Harry was not in the house at the time, so he did not know that the cat was now free. He was at the house from yesterday, or more like, in the tree outside the bedroom window again. Dudley and the girl walked by on several occasions, looking for her cat, she could not look all the time like Dudley wanted because she had to care for her siblings. Dudley was getting downright cranky at her leaving him constantly to check in with her family, and suggesting they split up to look, or that Dudley didn't really need to search if he didn't want to.

And thats when the cat came into it, she brought the cat out, "Must have been asleep all this time in the laundry room." She giggled nervously, and supposedly shortly after that is when Dudley lost his cool, he and she had it out so bad she went to her boyfriends to talk it over and cool off.

As for Harry he sat at the friends house naive to what had just transpired, watching for the occupant of the room which was no where to be seen until about five that night when she came to visit, and he saw someone rush past the open doorway. The door penned and she went in but was quickly brought to the backyard. Harry was about to climb down when he decided, eh screw it, he stayed where he was despite her and the guy she was speaking with going outside rather than inside the house, they stayed in the backyard and out of his vision but he could hear snippets of conversation here and there. In attempts to hear more he climb a bit further up the branch which was aparently the wrong thing to do. The branch didn't warn him, gave no heads up, just decided to depart, and take Harry along with it. In a single crack the branch broke and Harry fell to the ground in a painful smash. Whats more was it was loud enough to draw their unwanted attention.

"Harry was it? Now why are you still following me, I told Dudley to back off very plainly." She said  
>"Well I didn't get the message, I'll back down, I just wanted to know why someone like you would chose another person over well, that which is my cousin." He sighed, and could not believe he was saying this, though it was true, Dudley had been working out, he was now extremely hot to all the girls, he had abs, supposedly kind features though he didn't see it, why wasn't she interested in him? He had to know. "I just wanted to see for myself why you refused him, I mean you've never seen his cruel side, Im told he's pretty good looking, he comes from a family with, well some money at least, I need to know." He felt he had expressed himself, "That and my cousin will totally kill me if I don't have the answer to why you don't like him."<p>

"Because Im not in love with your cousin, he and I, we don't get along we have nothing in common, we cannot discuss anything of interest to us both, he's a pig-headed full of himself little boy, thats why!" She said, anger flaring from her like a volcano. "That and I love someone else, like I have been telling him."  
>Harry tried to look around the corner to where the guy was hiding, but was stopped by her.<br>"Look my boyfriend, he's shy." She said.  
>"No, he's right, come take a look at me, tel me if you think Im worthy of such a girlfriend." Came the mans voice. Harry was released and quickly turned the corner so that he could see who she had chosen over Dudley. He was at first, shocked, the guy was wearing a mask, a hocky mask like some horror movie. He removed the mask and Harry wished he hadn't. He had never had experience with burn victims, but recognized the scaring none the less.<br>"Motorcycle accident, brakes broke inconveniently and a pedestrian was crossing the road." He explained.  
>"Can't they fix that now, with plastic surgery and stuff?" Asked Harry.<br>"They did." Was the answer, 'scary thought.' thought Harry.

"So how'd you to meet?" Harry asked, it was the first question he could think of.  
>"I was the pedestrian he swerved to miss." She answered.<br>"Well that answers that I suppose." Harry said, he didn't know why he said that exactly like that, he was just incredibly uncomfortable.  
>"What do you mean by that?" She demanded.<br>"Well obviously you to love each other, true love and all that jazz right?" Harry said, trying to correct his mistake.  
>He went home wiser to the mysteries of love, not that it helped from the pounding his cousin gave him. Then Dudley wanted to know where he lived, Harry knew he was in for a long night.<p> 


	4. Authors note

**Hello all! I just have to write a small note, and I apologize for the inconvenience...**

**So here it is, I've caught a small portion of carpletunnel, and now cannot get on to type too much/at all. So there will be nothing new for four days and thats if I feel better, which is sad because the next chap is all done (next five on 'Dear Diary', next two on 'Misguided Hope', actually, I was going to put one up a day) but they need heavy editing and so cannot be put up yet. I am in the middle of finding an editor and so it may be sooner. **

**Its very early signs and so I think (ignoring the docs warnings here) four days, and then a five to ten minute edit and posting would do no harm. **

**Let this be a warning to you all though, no 6-16 hour typing without taking a break every four hours or so. I can't help myself, I am a novelist and sometimes, I get carried away... way away! The above has been my schedule for about... well over a year at least everyday nearly so I guess Im lucky it took so long to occure. **

**If you know anything about it you'll know, its easy to fix just stop what your doing for a bit, blah-bah-de-blah and then its back to the old schedule with a little more self care... and a new keyboard and padding something like that. Aparently the way my desk is a bit too small for me making me sit sideways in the chair, and the lack of appropriate padding on my keyboard makes my workspace the worst for invoking carpletunnel, who knew right?**

**Please, feel free to read and enjoy my stories and I will not leave you cliffied, there will be a new chapter in four days, circled onto my calendar (I will go get/steal a calender to do just that) you will get the next chap, just later.**

**Now you may wonder 'if she has carpletunnel why is she writing such a long letter' well I promised no more writing after this message, no one said anything about this message, *insert evil laugh here***


	5. Day 6

**Hey all, thank you for the tremendous support! (wow a lot of pm's and a lot of reviews) thank you!**

**So Im back, feeling good, but not pushing it so without further... putting off (only because I can't spell adieu or whatever) here is the next chapter!  
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><p>Day 6<p>

Snape sat writing at his desk, the only sound to be heard was the scratching of his quill against the paper. He saw the book begin once more to glow and immediately got up to read the newest entry. After reading it he closed the book, a moments thought held onto his face. Harry had written about a lesson he would do well to learn. He put the book back and began to complete what he had been doing.

_Day 6 (fri)_  
><em>After what could possibly have been the worst night ever in the land of Vernane, Sir Severes got up and began his chores it was just past dawn and he'd already had a rough start, an assassin had snuck into his room last night and nearly killed him. He was beaten up a bit, not half as bad as that assassin though, but still very sore, and very cranky. He yelled at a maid for serving him scolding hot water and trashed both his room and the dining hall. He felt entitled to since he had had such a horrid sleep. He continued right to the barn, where he had been asked to rid it of a nest of poisonous snakes and he set the barn on flame, why should he put forth the effort of dragging every snake, of which there were hundreds, out when a simple fire and rebuild would suffice? He didn't have to rebuild it and it would give the lazy workers something to do.<em>

_Then he rushed the queen for her morning walk, taking hold of her mare and forcing it to speed up until she was nearly falling off, all across the gardens and back to the staircase where she usually came off her horse with a large smile and in a good mood. This morning however she was dragged off her horse and where a smile usually kept itself, was shock instead, but he did not even notice. He was so upset he rushed off, put her horse in the field it always went to after a run and went about his other chores in the same manner he had all morning. At sword training he got so fed up he grabbed all the swords and threw them to the bottom of the lake. It was even worse when he visited the nearby village which had been attacked once more by the Goblins, the bell he had given them had cracked in a mishap and so no longer worked. This only infuriated him even more, rather then assure them he was doing all he could, he told them he quit and didn't care if they were attacked again, why couldn't they just leave the village? If they knew it would be attacked again why stay?_

_By nightfall he had completed everything he had been commanded to do and so he went for a walk, the anger spent up and evaporated at last. It was only then that he saw the damage he had done. The maid he had been so carelessly rude to he found weeping in the stairs, the maid had been forced to clean up the horrendous mess he had left behind in the dining room, only to discover she had another mess equally as bad in his room. The queen, having been in a bad mood had demanded that everyone work on the barn until it was completed, even through the night. At the village he found barely anybody, all those well enough to travel had left, this left only a few people behind, a pregnant widow and her three children who were all too young to leave on their own, their mother too far along with child and a few older people too frail and crippled to go._

_It was only then that Sir Severes felt humiliated for his actions. He decided he would correct it and then never make the same mistake again._

_For the maid, he gave her a full days salary and the day off, he would clean his room himself. The Queen he pacified by speaking with the king and making a romantic moonlit picnic in the mountains nearby. For the barn he would have to wait, the villagers were already pretty far and traveling through the night. He managed to catch up with them just as they reached a fork in the road._  
><em>"Please," He said, "I was wrong, I was very upset and very wrong, please come back to your homes and I will protect you." <em>  
><em>But the villagers only mocked him, they brought up that he had made the same promise before and had not stopped the attack this time how could they trust him. He bowed his head in shame, they were all right, he had not stopped the attack, had not helped them in their hours of need afterward either.<em>  
><em>"I am very sorry for how I mistreated you, all of you but I will stop these attacks, if only you will come back."<em>  
><em>Reluctantly they did decide to come back, at least some did, most travelled onward never to be seen or heard from again.<em>

Harry leaned back from his writing, and rolled onto his back with a wince. Today had been horrible, Dudley had been beating him up a good portion of the night, and the next morning he had gotten a good whelping from Vernen for slamming the dishes around, and to add to his fury, Vernen warned about Hedwig's screeching and noises. His Uncle had threatened to kill his precious owl if she didn't start behaving. Responding to the threat had been the wrong thing to do and he was promptly punished for that as well.

He shushed the bird as she started to 'coo' and closed the sheets around the cage more securely, in the hopes that she would go to sleep, quietly. The heavy padlock of Vernen's stuck out grotesquely from under the sheet. He could have avoided all of it if he had just kept his head. but he was just so mad at Dudley he had not been paying attention, the worst mistake one can make at the Dursleys. He had been sent to his room shortly after, and had been forced to stay all day, probably tomorrow as well, who knew.

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><p><strong>I am editing the next chapter to this and also the next chapter to my other hp story Impossibly Misguided which will be out tomorrow. Well thats all for today...<strong>

**read and enjoy**


	6. Day 8

**In celebration of the new hp movie coming out (and sadly the last one :( pls don't spoil haven't seen it yet) I have put two chapters in for the price of one! Happy hp movie guys!**

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><p>Day 7 (sat)<br>Snape came into his private rooms swiftly, he had just come from dinner in which he had been forced to endure, everyone, at least all the teachers, some of whom he did not hate so much and some of whome he hated very much. It had been grueling, it had seemed like it would never end, the chit-chat the talking, yet another D.A. teacher, yet another conversation when all he could think about was this blasted book.

He looked around the shelf, cursing that he had been caught up so interested, it was the fantasy he liked, he assumed, he so rarely read anything fantasy, somehow he now could not help but wonder what the next story would be about, would it have dragons?

Blast it! He could not find the book, he thought to when he had last seen it, last night when he had placed it back onto the bookshelf. There! He took it out and opened it, but was surprised to find, nothing, Harry had added nothing new as of yet. Disappointed, Snape put the book on the table and began grading some papers, he had completed all of his own OWL's but he wanted to reread the funny ones.

Without knocking Trilawny came in, of all people, "Oh good your not busy, Headmaster said I required some aid with these papers."  
>"No" Snape said sternly.<br>"But Headmaster specifically requested you." She said, with a sigh he gestured her to put the papers atop his desk. Coincidentally also on top a certain book that was there but both were too distracted to notice.  
>"Oh thank you that saves me all the trouble of going to the headmaster." She practically skipped out to the door.<br>Dawning came to Snapes face before she could quite reach the door though. "I thought you said Headmaster requested my aid?"  
>"Well he will, in the future!" Trilawny said, waving her arms around her face dramatically while looking up vaguely at the ceiling. He couldn't fight it anymore and looked up to see what she was looking at, he heard a slam and when he looked down she was gone. Relief practically flooded the room, when it came to that annoying twit, he would rather mark a hundred O.W.L's than be in her company. Looking down he almost wished he hadn't thought that, it looked like she had given him every assignment she had given out this year, for heaven-sake she couldn't have had more than fifty students and yet there were much more then fifty assignments, and not only O.W.L's but also essays and assignments from all that year. This was going to be a long night. He conjured up a large cup of coffee and got down to work.<p>

Harry was busy in the garden that evening, the moon rose high but he was still busy and probably wouldn't finish until morning. He was being punished.

It started that morning, he had come out to make breakfast for everyone, when Petunia started screaming as though her shoes had lit aflame. He rushed down just in time to see a mouse scurry under the armchair, and so the day began, he searched for the 'miscreant mouse', Vernon and Dudley both did not take kindly to being awoken early on a Saturday and seemed bent on punishing Harry, why he just could not fathom. Vernon spent all morning ordering Harry about on where to check for the mouse, while Dudley seemed to be having Mouse-visions everywhere making Harry run around checking everywhere Dudley decided to scream 'mouse'. Petunia had Harry scrub everything down, and she truly meant everything. Between the three of them he just was not enough and all three had their complaints. When he finally did corner the mouse, he captured it in a bucket, closed the lid and went to the nearby forest to release it.

Somehow this was just not enough, "your a wizard for heaven sake killing it should have been easy" said Petunia, her naivete was astounding. And so, that is how he had come to gardening all night, the reeds cut into his bare hands, the moon was full and bright though and for that he was grateful. It was well past three when Petunia finally let him back inside, but not before washing him down with the hose, not that he blamed her, he was caked in soil and probably didn't resemble a human at all presently. Only after she was sure all mud had been taken off and he had changed into the clothes she had tossed out there, did she allow him in. He was walked straight to his room a piece of bread tossed into his hand and the door closed, the locks sounded. Harry finished the bread, but his hands were to sore to write anything, he decided it would have to wait until morning.

Day 8 (Sun)  
>Harry sat in his bed, there was not much to do, he was being locked up for today and probably tomorrow as well. He started with yesterday's entry though.<p>

_Day 7_  
><em>Sir Severes woke that morning to the dawn being blanketed out. As though a sheet had simply covered up the sunrise with malcontent. He rose quickly and went outside where hysteria was running a mock and chaos began to grow. He tried to calm everyone as best he could but even the queen was in hysterics. The king held his queen close, fear contorted his face.<em>  
><em>"Severes, deal with this I want that taken care of-" Something landed in his mouth cutting the rest of his words off. He spat onto the ground and out popped a large bug the size of Severes's adult hand. It was green and resembled a Grasshopper. Suddenly the odd, large bugs landed everywhere like a green blanket of snow. Everyone rushed into the palace in fright, trampling folk as they ran.<em>

_Sir Severes stayed back, he helped those that had been injured in the stampede get back inside. Once inside and those that had been trampled were being seen to, Severes went to read reports, perhaps they would give insight into what was going on, a drought in another land perhaps had caused this or some such thing. Mean while the king started to make demands. He demanded that three of his personal guards go out and begin to take out all the bugs anyway they could. _

_The first gaurd began to stomp and slap the bugs away, he created a dance that the whole village got in on, but it was hopeless after hours of dancing he was no closer to ridding the country of all of its bugs then he had been that morning. It became clear he was failing and so he was sent down for the rest of his life in the dungeon for disobedience._

_The second guard got the idea that bugs burned and that smoke would drive the bugs away so he lit all the nearby huts on fire and worked to get the bugs to leave that portion of town, but the fire grew and spread to take over all the houses and even grew right up to the castle wall. That knight was hung for destruction of royal property._

_The third guard, without knowledge to the first guards actions, went to the homeland and bargained with a dragon to come and flap its wings so that the bugs would be blown away. The dragon agreed, and together they flew back and the dragon flapped its wings and blew all of the bugs away. That is until they were captured by the kings men. The locusts came back with a vengeance this time, rather then agree to the plan, the king had them both executed for fraternizing with the enemy._

_Day 8_  
><em>All this went on without Severes's knowledge, when he came back with the answers he had sought, the king immediately summoned him.<em>

_The king told him to get rid of the bugs by that time tomorrow or he would meet one of the same fates as the three guards. Horrified, but not surprised by the fates of the three guards, Sir Severes made it his top priority, he tried to ride out into the night for his plan, but was refused permission to leave the grounds, should he turn coward and run. He was stuck, he needed a way out, not to run but to correct the problem. To his surprise the beast appeared as if from the air itself and asked how he could help. _

_Without time to ask how the beast even knew he required aid, or why he had come back when it was such a dangerous thing to do, he instead explained, as quickly as he could, his plan. Whether the beast believed it would work or not was not entirely clear, he simply nodded and vanished down a servants passage. All Severes could do was hope the beast would do as he had said._

Harry stopped writing, his hands were to sore, he had been taking small breaks all along but his hands were now swelling, some of the cuts bleeding once more and he thought it best to finish tomorrow anyway. He lay back until Petunia came to bring him to the washroom. He went in and quickly did his business which involved a very quick shower, nearly all of which he drank. He was brought back, his dinner, a sandwich, was sitting on top his desk. He ate with Petunia watching and as soon as he'd finished she took his plate and left him alone the rest of the night.

Snape  
>Snape was, at that very moment, completing the last paper. He was surprised to see the book there, he had actually forgotten all about it. He marked a gigantic 'F' on the assignment he had in his hand and opened the book to the new entries. It irked him that so far, he had not been able to decipher this greatly horrible deed that the knight had done, was it perhaps the reason the king hated the character? Stretching Snape took a look at the time, nearly midnight, he closed the book and chose to call it a night. He had missed dinner but found, he was not very hungry anyway. He went straight to his private rooms, leaving the assignments and book as they were on his desk.<p>

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><p><strong>I really hope you enjoyed it! I was a little distracted by my nearly over whelming need to watch the new hp movie and so could not give this chapter my full attention...<strong>

**I hope you enjoy this chapter and enjoy the new movie!**


	7. Day 9

**So here is the next chapter, I hope you enjoy it! To me its the best so far... **

**Disclaimer, I own nothing, not even a pair of shoes, my sis came back and took them both away... *sniffle* Those reading 'Misguided Hope' understand what Im talking about here... All others please disregard as odd babbling.**

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><p><em>Day 9 (Mon)<em>

_The next day was tense, every moment was spent at the window of his room, watching the horizon. The time ticked by much to quickly and still the bugs were everywhere. As nightfall approached Severes found it harder and harder to remain calm and collected, though he remained composed. The last rays of sunlight faded and as though it were some joke a bug landed onto his arm, he flicked it off and turned towards the loudly opening door. Guards came in and took him out. He did not fight them, merely walked to the king as if by his own accord._

_The king was very disappointed, but he never went back on a punishment and so he began to speak._  
><em>"Sir Severes you have failed me, my punishment to you instead of life in prison, is instead that you will never see your homeland again."<em>  
><em>Sir Severes felt his heart nearly crack and fear rip at his calm collective thoughts, "This is a punishment I deserve I know but in your kind, gracious majesty may I tempt you an offer? Sir, I would gladly pay the price of the first gaurd if you merely give me until midnight."<em>  
><em>"See you clapped in chains for the rest of your life? Well it is a fate well deserved." and with that he had until midnight for the bugs to go away.<em>  
><em>Severes was brought back to his rooms, immediately he went to the window in search of the horizon. Time was much to quick and he was brought back before he was entirely ready or even sure it was truly midnight.<em>

_As soon as he entered the room he was stripped of his weapons, boots, hat, gloves, even his coat and placed in chains._  
><em>"Sir Severes, it is midnight and still these bugs do plague us you have failed me. For this I am bound by my word to cast you in chains and leave you to die in the dungeons, as much as I would have loved to see you die before me." He said the last part without shame.<em>

_"This is a punishment I deserve I know but in your kind, gracious majesty may I tempt you another offer? Sir, I would gladly pay the price of the second gaurd if you merely give me until servents Dawn. That way you may see my death yourself right efore your own eyes."_  
><em>"I was about to give you the punishment of the first gaurd, life in the dungeon, are you sure you would trade that, a life, for another few hours?"<em>  
><em>"Yes your majesty." Sir Severes responded with a bow. The king merely nodded and so it was he had until False dawn.<em>

_He was brought back to his rooms but his clothes were not given back to him, nor were the chains taken off. Still he kept his eye to the horizon, and his hopes high_

_He was near hysterics by the nearing of False Dawn, and still nothing in the distance could be seen. The sky lit in its gray/blue light, the light of false-dawn, growing ever brighter. He was summoned back to the king. To his surprise there was a hangman's set-up in the corner, complete with a stage that would drop him, the fall was almost ten feet high so there was no hope of escaping it._

_"It is false-dawn, as agreed, now I will see you die." A rope was thrown at him which he caught easily. "You'll be tying your own knot like you deserve."_  
><em>"So it is pain you would see?" Asked Severes casually as he tied the knot, "Then why not burn me instead?"<em>  
><em>"Eh, sounds like a good idea but I am a king of my word and we agreed to a hanging."<em>

_"Well then, why not make another agreement? Give me until True Dawn, if I have still failed you then you may burn me at Dawn." Severes dared look up to the king, the knot was done and being put around his head, and yet the king merely thought it over, a finger to his mouth, food still on his face. A truly disgusting last sight, the bag went over Severes's head, the knot was pulled to choking him, to check for strength. _

_"The rope is good to go," he heard and yet the king remained silent. Blindly he was led up the stairs, eleven of them to be exact, and none of them even so he was tripping and slipping nearly every step. He stopped where a rough arm shot out and struck him across the chest and he waited, time seemed nonexistent, non-important he could have been standing a day or a second it was lost to him. The ground beneath Severes vanished without warning and if he'd have had the air, he would have screamed like a sissy girl but just as he began to fall he heard the king._

_"Deal." The rope was cut before it even grew tight again and he landed roughly onto the floor the clash of the chains hitting the ground with him was deafening to his ears. The hood was roughly ripped off and he was led back to his room._

_It took him nearly right up until true dawn to get the noose off it was so tight, and still he kept his eyes to the horizon, hoping against hope that he would see it. Dawn came, the sky became an array of beautiful colours._  
><em>And then in the Dawn's light, another cloud could be seen, but this time Severes was not surprised. The cloud grew bigger and bigger until at last it was above them and then, many many birds began to swoop, they had flown right from the mountains when they had learned of the delicious meal the townsfolk had for them. Within an hour nearly all the bugs would be gone.<em>

_He was led once more to the throne room. The hangmen set-up was gone instead, directly in the center of the room, was a pile of wood, with a log standing at the center, he was immediately dragged to the pile of wood and tied to the pole, chains and all._  
><em>The king stood to speak now, "Severes, I am told it is now Dawn, and yet the bugs are still here, in perhaps even stronger numbers."<em>  
><em>The same man as the hangman, came forward with an already lit torch.<em>  
><em>Snape made another effort for time. "You majesty you misunderstood, I did not make myself clear, I meant when Dawn's golden aura touches your beloved throne, why would I ever expect you to rise for a mere servent such as me?"<em>  
><em>This seemed to placate the king and he nodded. "Agreed, you will have until the light shines upon my throne but that is the last time I will be so kind." The hangmen stomped out the already lit part and stood back.<em>  
><em>Time passed, how much Severes could not fathom, the room began to glow a vibrant golden red.<em>  
><em>"I see you have failed. Now I will see you burned at the stake as you agreed to." The king announced<em>  
><em>"But sire, the Dawns light has yet to touch your chair." Severes pleaded.<em>  
><em>The king scowled "I can see the light in this very room all around me, I do not need it to touch my chair."<em>  
><em>"Have not all the bugs vanished sire?" Severes said, not appreciating the tone of 'begging' in his voice.<em>  
><em>The king had an evil glint in his eye and of pure joy at his mouth. The king reached up, holding high a large green bug in his very own hand. A cry from up above gathered everyone's attention as a bird dove down and snatched up the bug right from the kings hand. Just then the golden light of dawn hit the throne, blinding the king.<em>

_Without a word the hangman came forward and released Severes from both his bonds and chains. It was not missed that the hangman, when he came close, had the same eyes as the beast. With a wink he helped Severes to stand and handed him back his possessions._  
><em>"I believe I have completed your task, your majesty." Sir Severes bowed and left, no one stopped him, he went straight for some much required rest.<em>

Harry closed the book just in time as the locks began to undo, he quickly put the book under the hidden floor board and had just managed to just back into the bed when to his surprise, Dudley came in.

"So you told her I had a crush on her did you?" He said, his face was red with anger, a strong resemblance to his father could be made. He stepped heavily into the room, his hands balled to fists, behind him two lackeys came in as well.

'Oh boy, this is going to be painful...' Thought Harry

Snape  
>Snape saw the book begin to glow and gave it a few moments to subside which would signify 'message complete,' before he would read it. To his surprise it stayed glowing for over an hour. 'If only the boy would donate that much time to Potions he would have done so much better.' He continued writing until the book stopped glowing before he put the quill down and rose from his chair.<p>

But then a shock of pain went up his arm, burning pain, he was being summoned. All thoughts of the book vanished from his mind and instead he got prepared. He ensured to tell Dumbledore before he changed, no telling who was with Dumbledore after all.

Early the next day, Snape

It was barely false dawn, Snape came back exhausted, he had arrived and been shown straight to the dark lord. With no other warning or words he was ordered to 'stand still no matter what'. This meeting had been testing new recruits and some dolt had hit him squarely in the back, he had been forbidden to block the attacks in any way and so all he could do was stand and take it. It was some sort of test he knew. There had been three deaths and three initiations that night. No one from Hogwarts, no one he had ever even heard about which was both sad and comforting.

He had already visited Dumbledore to say he was back, and eaten a light breakfast so that nothing would wake him. He went straight to bed but found, he could not sleep so instead he read the newest entry. It was about ten in the morning, Potter usually wrote the entries at nine or so at night so he was reading yesterday's entry.

He never finished the entry, not because it wasn't interesting but because he finally managed to get to sleep mid-way through.

Harry on the other hand, was just getting up at that time, finally allowed out of the room Petunia allowed him to clean himself up before beginning breakfast, before he could even consider getting into a good mood though, he was passed a list of chores as long as he was tall. He barely concealed a groan before he got to work, first taking a shower as he was ordered to do.

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><p><strong>I would also like to answer some questions! To hard to answer reviews I give cookies, to questions a smiley face others, an answer? Dunno I didn't really think the system through just wanted to explain the cookie part...<strong>

**Anon; It was ment to be a daily posting but Im not supposed to type that much anymore, not until Im all better from this carpletunnel (which still plagues me when I type to much here and there) and I get a new desk set-up. **

**Jordina; Was that a bit OOC you think? I have read all the books, seen all the movies accept the last one, I was too upset over Serious' death, and then Dumbledore's and I found out they killed off my other favourite characters *spoilers alert here* One of the twins (as a fellow twin I cannot condone killing only one off, it'd be hell for both), Lupin, Tonks and Snape. I always knew Snape was good though, (well from the fifth book on but I questioned it at book three and even book one when he saved Harry, for unknown reasons I cannot remember book two atm dunno why...) but someone told me they all died and I was too upset over it. Plus I was totally convinced that Percy was under the imperious curse the hole time, and he wasn't he was just a jerk.  
><strong>

**Sadie, I think youll be surprised by the answer ;)**

**EtherialBlitz; **_'will snape realize that he's reading harry situation at home?'_** All in good time...  
><strong>

**T.y.u.i.t.y.u.i; *Cookie* and you know why ;)**

**Agoge; Thank you! :)**

**CGO7; Yes I wanted to add a little more depth to his character, Im glad you caught that, Im also glad you love the story so much! Its really an honor to hear such things, I never know if people like my work or not, thank you! I have not seen the movie yet, sadly I still mean to, I hope it was great though, and yes Im sad the H/P era has ended... So sad**

**MusicGal; Beauty and the beast is my FAVORITE story of all time, and for me the beasts appearance is very personal so he looks like anything you want him to look like ;)**

**Cara-Tanaka; here it is! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!**

**Thanks once again for the questions concerns and issues yes I like to hear of any holes in my plots, or corrections required so that I may fix them and more can enjoy my story!  
><strong>


	8. Day 10

**First off, let me apologize for the long wait for this chapter, you see I wrote the first and last three chapters all first, if that makes sense. So connecting them together took a bit of thought, no we are not done the story yet, but I needed to make sure the chapter went with the other chapters that all went with the ending. Plus everyone liked Natalie so I had to add more of her in there ;)**

**Also in the name of honesty, Ill admit something terribly painful to you group of strangers. I can't write sappy scenes, or scenes where someone gets beat up, it takes FOREVER just to get to the computer table and begin writing, I put it off, I change the subject, hint at it, but I can never get the scene out. I think its because I know so many people who actually went through that kind of stuff and I have a mortal fear they will happen upon it and read... I dunno but its supper hard for me, I'm even thinking of getting a fellow writer to write the scenes out for me, would that be cheating? Can anyone give me any advice on how to get past this? As a writer, full time, I need to write bad scenes sometimes and yet, I just can't seem to get them out, or even picture them...  
><strong>

**As always I hope you enjoy the read!  
><strong>

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><p>Day 10<p>

Harry sat in the tree, placing a birdhouse in the branch that Petunia declared worthy of her home made house, bought at the store for 12.99, her and her friends had decided to create their own birdhouses that week as a craft-hobby. Petunia had spent no effort even attempting it, she went straight to the store and bought one. She wanted it up before her friends arrived, so that they could not truly tell the quality of the birdhouse. He stretched out his arms and reached high above him, as high as he dared go, this branch felt too weak he was surprised it had held him so far. He stood up a little so as to just get that extra inch...

He had just began to tie the house up when without warning Petunia's friends were shown into the garden. Feeling the stress of having to put the house up, Harry's brow began to perspire, the knot refused to stay, it was almost as if the wire on the one side had come loose... and indeed it had he realized as the entire bird house slipped from his grasp and smashed to the ground, his other hand reached out to catch it just a mere instant too late.

"Oh, well as you see it's already in the tree, those birds, they just love it!" Petunia went on, she hadn't seen it! He went to climb down but something caught his eye. In the next backyard, there stood Dudley. This could not bode well... Thought Harry.

"Really Petunia, because it says here, made in China." She laughed loud, she laughed fake, she laughed to Harry's doom. Harry looked up to see Petunia glaring at him, her eyes had gone black and if she had been a witch, accidental magic would have taken him right off this world he didn't doubt it for a moment. To add to the moment, the branch snapped and crashed into the tea table below. The table crashed under the added weight, the crystal set Petunia had had him bring out, shine and place just so was smashed, as he looked around him in a daze, he could not find a single piece left intact.

He was dragged to his feet by surprisingly strong hands, Petunia's, for never having done any work thus far, she was a strong Aunt. She excused them both and went into the house.

She glared at him, for a long instant, even raised her hand to strike him several times but then she stopped, shaking with rage she said the cruelest words he had ever heard.

"You wait until your Uncle gets home!" She spat it out like it was meant, a threat, more then a threat, a time-line, a promise, a moment where he might possibly be quite changed. "I have half a mind to call him early from work so that when Marge gets here your punishment might nearly be over!"

"She's coming tomorrow," He said distantly.  
>"I know!" She shoved him out the side door too angry to even allow him to finish his chores. He walked down the street in dread, and then, he remembered Dudley in Natalie's backyard, why not? He went over and was just in time to see Dudley standing over her, whether he had smacked her or not was unclear.<p>

Harry ran forward and knocked his cousin to the ground in a tackle much like a football player, he fell back onto his butte, but he landed onto the fountain in the center of the yard his butte was embarrassingly soaked in the pant area. The much bigger boy stood up slowly, not even addressing Harry until he had dusted off his jeans and then without warning, Harry was struck so hard in the chest it dragged him backwards, Dudley dragged him backwards until he smashed into the fence with a sound of escaping air coming out his mouth.

"Stop it!" Called Natalie. Dudley dragged Harry across the yard and into the fountain, dunking his head three times before releasing him. Harry came up gasping for air, he brushed the hair away from his face and looked his cousin in the face.

Perhaps it was the lack of submissiveness in his eye, or the determined set of his jaw, in either case he was grabbed again and with a scream that escaped without his permission, he was grabbed and forced backwards until his entire upper half was in the water. The water filled his mouth, his nose, it tasted horrible, like it hadn't been cleaned in months, which it probably hadn't. He tried to fight but at the angle he was being shoved down at, he could not reach Dudley's face, Dudley's arms were much longer then his own, Dudley was leaning down with enthusiasm right across Harry's body so that even one arm was pinned, never mind his legs which were being painfully crushed.

With his one free hand he swiped uselessly at Dudley and grabbed a final time at Dudley's arm, it was useless but he could not help himself.

As he fought, he watched Dudley's determined, expression, so much like his father's red and purple violent face. Something flew past his vision and struck Dudley in the shoulder, freeing Harry at last, he came up gasping for air and coughing as part way up he had breathed in too soon. He slipped to the ground, still coughing and hacking, hoping he would be left alone long enough to recover. He barely got his wish as Dudley and Natalie's' boyfriend rolled nearly right over him before he could scurry away quickly. Natalie stood ringing her hands, unsure of what to do exactly.

"He came fast." Harry said, his voice scratchy as though he'd been screaming or had a cold already. "When's the last time you cleaned that fountain?" He was already backing out he could not stand yet. He was not sure whether he should help or run, her boyfriend was doing an excellent job at keeping Dudley away, even when they broke apart and Dudley tried to use his weight to careen past the slightly older man, he failed and they were caught in a struggling tackle.

"Take your time I can handle him," said the boyfriend over his shoulder. Harry was then aware he was buying Harry time to leave, not knowing that Dudley was Harry's cousin, he used the time, still coughing out what felt like his lungs themselves, he got up unsteadily and turned away from them, he ran as far as he could, as fast as he could. He stopped at the old play-park and sat on the turning wheel, now desperate to catch his breath. He coughed uncontrollably before leaning back and allowing himself time to fully recover. He closed his eyes and got his breathing under control.

After a moment he sat up. So today, not his day, and only bound to get worse, he pulled out the book, it was tucked under his high socks and under his pant leg. The pen was on the other side, he pulled that out as well. He pulled the lid off and began to write, only to discover the pen had exploded under the presser of Dudley's legs, a passing mom lifted her nose at him but grudgingly gave him a pen when he asked for one, much like a peddler.

He sat back and began to write.

_Day 10_

_Sir Severes travelled across the desert, out of both food and water, on an errand for the king. He had been travelling all day and as the afternoon grew hotter, and his mouth drier ad drier, he grew more and more exhausted, he hadn't slept since that morning, when he had nearly been hung. The sun beat down, the heat beat in, the sand threatened to swallow him up hole. _

_He stumbled up a dune and just managed to gain his balance when a sweet sight came to his eyes, an oasis!_

_He had never been so fast to cross a desert-dune before. He stopped at the outskirts where his eyes picked up men of Vernane sitting at a fence around the water, they were fending off a small child who was seemingly desperate for some water. He came forward just as the child was thrown into the sand behind him, he helped her up and dusted her off but she ran off like a little mouse._

_"What's the meaning of that?" Asked Sir Severes, pointing at the child._

_"A desert brat, we do sweeps to take out her kind every few years but somehow we always miss one or two." The guard was a brutish man that Severes would have happily killed off if he had not had twelve others alongside him nodding their heads, and if Severes were not so dehydrated._

_"I require ten flasks of water. For the kings business," Severes requested. They pulled out already filled flasks and put them on the ground in front of him._

_"Four flasks at the kings' pleasure, he sent a note ahead by bird." The guard laughed as Severes took the flasks, he'd have to make do._

_Severes walked out of the shade of the oasis, they hadn't even offered him a drink, or allowed him a drink, already he would be using the flasks water. He walked on, but a sob made him stop, the child looked pleadingly up at him._

_Without the heart to say no, he tossed one of the flasks to the child who took it and ran away with deft speed. Snape went to opposite way, he travelled well past sundown and well into the night._

_He didn't even know what he was searching for, just 'the origins of the bugs' that could be anything. Any other night would have pointed a finger at the closest magic user or wizard, even pretended someone was a wizard just for the purpose of getting the quest over with. But not Severes, he began to mock himself in his righteousness, what right did he have to be treating people better then everybody? To treat everybody else better then they treated himself and they treated themselves? _

_Morning came, and he was out of water, he stumbled forward but as dawn came up over the desert he fell to his knees with a growl. He had mocked the will right out of himself. It was a feat the king had been trying for years how ironic he had done this to himself. He knelt there unmoving, accepting fate as it was to somehow claim him._

_"Excuse me sir..." He opened his eyes, it was the desert child._  
><em>"Is this your dune?" Asked Severes dizzily, the answer of the child was unclear because he passed out soon after talking to the child. He awoke sometime later, he was being dragged in short yanks, by his shoulders across the sand. He was to exhausted to move though and quickly fell back to sleep. When next he woke, he was in shade, he was in a shallow cave with desert all around.<em>

_"Are you awake Lion?" The child asked, pressing cool beautiful water to his lips, he sat up and drank deeply before slowing himself, he was not sure how much water there was and did not want to drink needlessly. Although his body disagreed and begged for more water._

_"Little Mouse where are we?" He asked._

_"We are safe, for now, with water... for now." The child said with a shrug, or several, Snape tried to focus his eyes onto the child but he was too groggy, or dehydrated, or both..._

_"I'm looking for something, the beginning of all those bugs, can you tell me where that was?" Severes, or Lion asked kindly._

_"Yes," the child said looking at him intently._

_"Well, I need to know as soon as I can know." He urged, she nodded intently still._  
><em>"As soon as the sun goes down past above, we will go, too hot now you'll get sun-touched." She explained as though it were obvious.<em>

_They sat, he played little word games with her and she gave him more water, until the sun was bleeming into the cave, they left the cave and she took his hand and lead him out into the desert, not looking back. He followed suit but she only lead him thirty may be forty feet before she turned him around, it was a ridge of rocks, a mountain of rocks from one side of the desert, to the other, nearly one hundred feet high at its lowest point, before them, and stretching up above the clouds in other parts._

_"There," the child said pointing, "the pass collapsed under lightening and blocked the water, this here," the child waved both hands dramatically to represent everything around them, "it is all a lake, without this lake, the bugs leave."_

_Sir Severes looked around him, his mind coming up with a plan, "Well, then I guess that pass has to be cleared up then." he said to the little mouse-child.  
>Together they went towards the pass to see how this could be accomplished.<em>

Harry sat back finally, he had been writing for an hour or so, he had been forced to rewrite a lot of the words as the pen was constantly dying on him. He considered not coming home tonight, he was in too much trouble. He planed this all evening, just staying at the park, possibly sleeping somewhere there as well. It grew dark but his resolve remained, he was not returning home. That is until Dudley's friends arrived in droves, one of them must have spotted him without his knowing, There was no doubt they knew he was there as they circled around and went straight in. He didn't even try to fight it as Vernon showed up with his car, stopped but he didn't get out.

They dragged him to the car to which Vernon lowered the window to shout out a "thanks boys." He tossed out a couple five dollar bills and they picked them up after tossing him in the backseat.

"So you beat up Dudley with another kid did you?" Vernon accused.

Harry gaped, "no, he was trying to drown me!"

"That's enough of your lies!" Vernon said with a hiss.

Snape

Snape woke up to the books soft warmth of something being written. He didn't read it however as instead he needed to get to work on some assignments he had fallen behind on, potions needing brewing, ingredients that required delicate procedure_, _and even more.

He looked around groggily, his eyes made contact to his coffee pot, he went over and put it on, some ordered it from the house elves but he proffered to make his coffee in the mornings the routine woke him faster then the coffee usually. He went about his chores normally once he was finished with his morning coffee.

He was sore from the day before, his muscles complained at every movement until he got going, then it wasn't so bad, he shouldn't have slept on the couch, he chastised himself. He went about his normal day routine until late that night when he finally could relax, he had caught up, on everything. Several potions bubbled and sat in the lab downstairs but he was done for the night. He sat back down at the couch, sitting back, he eyed the book, not wanting to fall asleep again, but -he told himself- he was not nearly that tired, he opened the book and read the entries, catching up. How interesting, he thought, he closed the book and went to bed.

Harry

Harry was dragged up the stairs and into his room by his hair. His uncle did not bring out any weapons or even start yelling, in fact he didn't speak at all. He was strangely quiet and the change made Harry's heart pound so hard, it felt like it was in his mouth. He saw it coming but knew better then to try and stop it_, _his uncle kicked him right in the ribs and he gasped for air that refused to come. He saw another kick coming and reflexively blocked it. He felt the bone snap and knew it was broken, he'd broken to many bones before not to know.

The kicks became faster and seemingly harder, he shrank back until he was under the bed. He knew it was only a moment's respite but he could not help himself. The room and seemingly the world went deathly silent. All he could hear was his breathing, more wheezy then was healthy, he listened hard, tried to look around for Vernon's feet but suddenly there was a crash, the bed collapsed under a great weight. Harry couldn't help but scream as he felt he was being nearly crushed alive.

Whether Vernon was going to stay on the bed until Harry had thought it safe, or whether it was his intention to kill Harry it was unclear but Harry refused to stop screaming, actually physically could not, stop screaming until the bed was ripped off him, even the sudden blinding light didn't stop him, as the bed was thrown accross the room. He was grabbed by the front of his shirt and brought up to a sitting position, then promptly slapped across the face, he stopped then, his mouth snapping shut with such force he thought he heard his teeth hit each other.

"Vernon dear, your sister is due here any minute, shut the boy up!" Petunia said coming into the room. Her nose crinkled and she added, "and throw him outside, he stinks!"

Harry was brought back down the stairs, a hand on his back pushing him so fast that he stumbled quite a few times, he was tossed out into the backyard, falling to the ground with the force.

"You'll stay out here, and you'll be quiet and unseen!" Vernon said with promise in his voice. A promise that things would get worse if he disobeyed. He got up quickly, should something be thrown at him. He sat at the chair to the now busted tea table and tea set, none of it had been cleaned up. He had to brush off the glass from the chair but it was better then the ground.

He sat forward with a sigh, his head in his hands.

"Psst!" Came a voice behind the fence, he looked up and saw Natalie, or at least her hands through the fence rails. "Are you ok?"

"Peachy." He answered sarcastically.

"Come over, you don't sound so good." She ordered.

"I'm fine." Harry said.

"Alright I'll come to you," she threatened.

"No! Don't do that it'll make things worse, much worse." Harry said hurriedly. "Fine, I'm coming over."

He went around the block and stopped at the gate to her backyard, should he knock? Would hat be weird? He decided to knock and then allow himself in. Natalie sat on the edge of the fountain, a book open but face down beside her.

"Oh! Harry, your hurt, you need to see a doctor!" She rushed over and looked at his face, but it was his arm she took a good look at, somehow she had simply known it was broken. "I'll call my boyfriend, he'll give us a lift."

"No, I couldn't." Harry said, paling, going to the doctors was the last thing he wanted to do. She insisted until he gave in, feeling too tired to reject anymore.

He wondered what her boyfriend drove. He realized then that he could not remember the name of her boyfriend and wondered if it was that he had never heard it, or some form of concussion. In either case he did not want to be rude and ask as the man showed up just then in a black sleek car, he was wearing a mask that was plane looking and even colored to be a normal face-type, with normal eyes and lips and a nose, no scars, he looked creepy still, but normal.

"Thanks for the um... ride." Harry said sitting in the back.

"He caught up to you?" The boyfriend asked, Harry shook his head.

"His father did, he's my guardian." Harry said his face flew by in the mirror as he got comfortable, he stretched up then, looking at himself in the rear-view mirror, he leaned back down, he looked bad, but considering his current company, he chose not to complain and instead silently took off the dirt and blood off his face. Natalie passed him a towel and he used it to press against his split lip. He wondered lightly, when exactly he had split his lip during the day, but then tossed the thought out, as he didn't really care just then when he had split his lip.

"Sorry to hear that." The boyfriend said, Harry shrugged.

He leaned back up to see himself, the dirt on his cheeks was still there, he watched himself scrub at it, not caring for the soreness that grew quickly to pain, still it was there.

"Its a bruise, leave it alone." The boyfriend said, Harry hadn't even realized that he had been watching him, he blushed and sat back down, cloth to his lip which refused to stop bleeding.

"Here," Natalie was in the front but she stretched herself around the chair and took the cloth, she licked the cleanest corner and then pressed it to his face, hard.

"Come sit properly, you never know what could happen," her boyfriend said as they stopped at a red light. She brought the towel back and smiled, returning to her seat, he looked in the mirror and saw that the cut had indeed stopped bleeding.

When they got to the hospital, the nurse was more then kind, she immediatly brought them all into a room where the doctor came in only an hour later and assessed the damage.

"What happened here?" He asked Harry.

Harry was about to respond when Natalie answered for him. "Some street thugs started a fight and before you know it, this happened, I'm his sister, Natalie." She held out her hand and he took it with a single shake before releasing it.

"And you are?" The doctor asked, seemingly to the hooded, masked man.

"His guardian," her boyfriend brought out I.D.

"Your picture looks nothing like you." The doctor said looking at the card and then the masked man.

"Its an old picture," he took off his mask to reveal, his face, and then pulled the mask back on, the doctor nodded, "Fine then, Ill have to x-ray it, then cast it, please wait here." And with that he left.

It took four hours but at last Harry was allowed to leave, his cast had an odd neon-green sock over it but otherwise, was solid enough he supposed. They drove back in silence, Harry kept trying to think of something to say. When they stopped just down the street to the house, he opened the car door, feeling he was being the rudest person but still not knowing what to say.

"uh, thanks you know for the ride and saving my life and everything... You really did you know, save my life earlier, anyway thanks." Harry turned and left before they could respond. He went back to the backyard, they hadn't even noticed he was gone._  
><em>


	9. Day 11

Day 11

Snape was just returning from a potion when the book began to glow, he ignored it, as good as the story was, he was not a prying man, he did not want to continue reading the adventures of the hero with his name. He had thought it over and decided that reading the story was an intrusion of privacy. When the book stopped he practiced his self-discipline and refused to go over to it, he even left the room all together.

_Day 11_

_Sir Severes was nearly at the top of the pass when a club came out from around the bend and struck him hard. He flew back but had the sense to draw his sword, with his other hand as his sword arm felt broken or worse._

_"I am Goliath!" A giant man stepped out to reveal himself. The giant man was over two people tall and his club was nearly as tall as its owner. Severes dove at him and began the battle. It took longer then he thought, the giant was strong and more than had the advantage, at one point the giant had a hold of his entire head and began to drag him back to his cave but Severes managed to slip out of the hold not once but twice, the giant stomped on him, probably breaking bones, and Severes stabbed him in the foot._

_When he finally had an advantage of his own, the Giant fumbled his club and dropped it, he took it and struck the man across the head, he fell to the ground with a loud crash._

_The child had hidden behind him during the entire attack, helping by throwing stones at the giant who called himself Goliath._

_"Onward little mouse," he said pointing the way._

_When Sir Severes finally managed to get to the top of the pass, it had taken all night and most of the day, he saw the great lake beyond and was he was overjoyed. Getting it back where it belonged though, that was another feat. He gulped greedily and then got back to work, since no one was around to witness it, he summoned his dragon and asked her to break the pass with her talons and fire. They got out of the way and watched her work, loyal and true she worked diligently all morning until the barrier collapsed and the water poured out like a waterfall._

_He bid goodbye to the little mouse and rode the dragon as far as he could go with her safely, from there it was only a few hours walk to the capital city._

_The city was alive with lights and music, the Queen had born a son, funny, he thought, he hadn't noticed she was pregnant, but he kept the thought to himself and returned to the castle to speak with the king._

_When the king heard about the ridge he was fascinated, for once, he thanked Severes profusely for fixing the problem once more. This was strange to the knight who knew the king well enough to know, that this wasn't right. His wounds were tended to and he was asked to join them before dinner._

_Since it was only lunchtime he slept until Dinner time and went to the summons, where the king promptly dropped a bundled baby into his arms._

_"Since you have proven yourself so trustworthy and well, you may care for the child." The woman that gave him the child was, he recognized, the king's sister, her mouth and nose were covered by a handkerchief as though the baby contained some viral decease, everyone else acted normal however, the king slapped him on the back, shooing him into the hall._

_"I am hardly a suitable-" the door was slammed into his face, no arguments it seemed to say, he was doing this. He looked down at the child, the boy, only a few hours old and already plopped onto the servants._

Harry

Harry was allowed back inside in the morning, to cook breakfast. Aunt Marge was, well her usual self and aparently Dudley was gifted with one of her dogs, 'now there is a true mut' thought harry angrily.

She did not have any memory of the night he had blown her up, which was really a pity as she had regained that behavior he had hoped to rid her of. He didn't see much of the dog that day, he was too busy chasing down the mother-dog who Dudley let escape out the backyard for no reason then to watch Harry run after the thing.

He sat down at lunch, his blood sugar must have been low or something because he was too tired to get back up, and he'd slept all night, albeit in the backyard on the three chairs set up together like a bed, actually more comfortable than most would give credit. He pulled out his journal and began writing.

"Hungry?" Asked Natalie, he looked up, startled. She held out a sandwich which he took greedily and gulped down quickly. "Looking for the dog?"

"Yup, how'd you know?" He asked taking the second sandwich offered, this time he noticed it was a heavily meated sandwich, with a lot of cold cuts used with mustard and ranch dressing and even some cheese in the second bite. He had heard the phrase 'like a cool glass of water' this sandwich, it was his cool glass of water.

"Heard the shouting," she answered sitting beside him, "don't worry it's taken care of."

"Oh I worry," he said jokingly. "How's your boyfriend?" He said conversationally

"Pretty good, hows your arm?" She asked, adding to the pleasantries.

"Same" He commented poking it, that no one had even commented ment, well he wasn't sure, he wasn't in trouble for leaving? It was obvious that he had to have left to get the cast, or perhaps they thought that he had somehow magicked it on... They departed each other soon after, Natalie had to tend to her sister who fell on the playground and Harry had to get home.

Harry came back into the house to see, the dog had already returned. No one payed him any attention so he went straight up to his room and went to bed. He did not get to lay down very long, the door opened and something was tossed onto the bed on top of him.

"We're going out, take care of that, ensure its happy or something." Dudley said before closing the door and bolting it shut. Harry rolled over and looked down at the little puppy, shaking and scared from being thrown.

The pup was only a few weeks old and very mute, the runt she called him. Harry immediately saw something was wrong with the pup, it was weak and sickly looking, he had seen puppies before and this, was not a healthy dog. He sent Hedwig out to Hagrid's with a note telling him of the puppies illness and asking for advice, also telling him that the mother kept running away and he wasn't allowed to touch her in any way with hands or otherwise.

"Go Hedwig, fly fast!" He said, feeling somehow this was urgent.

Harry spent all night taking care of the puppy, banging on the door to be let out, which he stopped as no one was home and it was only frightening the puppy, he tried to signal Natalie but his window did not face her's and so the chances of her possibly seeing him were small.

He'd about given up when a small voice sounded from his window.  
>"Blimey Harry, how do you manage to climb these trees so deftly?"<br>"Natalie?" He asked.  
>"I believe so, saw your messaging, you know, your horrible at code." She said getting comfortable.<br>"I need you to break in, its this puppy, he's dying and I'm locked in this room, please come and help me." He said coming to the window, he saw her jump down and try to back door, locked, she tried the front door, locked again, he heard a smash and cringed. There were stomps and a few doors opening and then, she opened his door, the bolt making a loud 'slinket' as she slid it back.

"There have got to be ten locks on your door, why?"

"Don't ask," he showed her the puppy, together they gave it milk and tried to give it back to the mother but the mother wanted nothing to do with the baby. She even snapped at them when they forced the issue.

"Nasty thing isn't she?" Natalie asked. He nodded, given that course of action up, they tried to give the baby milk from the fridge. They warmed it and tried everything else they could think of, the puppy wouldn't touch it. He died moments after midnight sounded, they both cried like babies, they'd tried everything they knew.

The Dursleys were gone until early in the morning when they came in like a circus of clowns, making enough rackets that the neighborhood as a whole heard them without doubt. This was actually a good thing as it gave Natalie time to depart through the same window she had entered through, he was already bolted back into his room, the puppy with him wrapped up in an old pillowcase.

Despite his banging they did not open the door until the next morning.


	10. Day 15

**ok, so its a shorter chapter, no fear! The next chapter is almost complete just a few more tweeks to get it to blend with the chapter after that. But I could not keep you waiting, so here it is the next chapter!**

**btw congrats to me for completing my other h/p fanfic (also staring Snape and Harry in a mentor/savior relationship) Impossibly Misguided!**

**Please check it out here:**

**www .fanfiction .net/s/7121372/1/Impossibly_Misguided**

* * *

><p>Day 15 (Sun)<p>

Harry lay in bed, he hadn't been allowed out of the room since he'd been discovered with the dead puppy. He hadn't written in his book either, or really did anything for the past few days.

He was startled to hear the door open, the locks and bolts took a while to open and when they were undone he was surprised to see it was Dudley that had freed him.

"Mom wants you downstairs in five." How un-Dudley like that he would do anything close to errands or fetching, Harry followed him out and went down the stairs.

Harry went down the stairs where he was then ordered to begin his normal everyday routine. He learned Aunt Marge had left the night before and assumed this was the reason he was now allowed out. But not unpunished, the list of chores was longer then any he had faced in his life, he read the list with dread, knowing it was impossible to complete everything that needed to be done in the twelve or so hours he had to complete them.

He tried though, he gave it his all in completing the list, it kept his mind occupied which is what he needed, no time to think, just doing, cleaning, waxing, scrubbing, weeding, all time-consuming tasks that occupied his thoughts and kept him busy. hours ticked by, and then he was brought inside, by then it was dark, he was given cold soup and brought to his room, the locks sounded and he fell, exhausted, into his bed and slept until the day began again, Petunia woke him this time, and he continued the same way he had the day before, throwing himself at his chores unrelentingly.

This cycle went on for many days uncounted Harry wrote nothing in his journal, in truth his arm was too sore to write, his hands to badly bruised and scabbed, he couldn't grasp something as small as a pencil or pen if he tried but he didn't. He took the book one night and put it in the cupboard under the stairs, on a shelf discretely and was content to never see it again.

Day 38 (Tues)

It was nearing noon, Tuesday the 38 day being there, when something broke him out of his revere. He was busy fishing through the reedy river, looking for an earing Petunia had lost somewhere around there, more like thrown to keep him busy he accused, but he said nothing out loud. Why Petunia would be in the middle on the forest, wearing her best silver earrings Harry couldn't understand but here he was fishing through weeds that reached as far as his thighs, looking for an earing that was probably gone with the current. She claimed she lost it near the shore so he did not have to cross into the deeper part of the river. She hadn't crossed the bridge as well which he was grateful for. He looked up just then, becoming aware of someone speaking to him.

"Hey Harry Im talking to you!" Dudley called, he sounded agitated like he had been calling him many times by then, Harry blocked the hot sun light with his hands until his eyes adjusted and to his horror he saw his knight, the only toy he owned that was barely scathed or ruined, he had had that knight as long as he could remember, the knight sat upon a horse with no hears but other then that, and a few scratches in the paint, the toy was unharmed despite his many years with it.

"Dudley put that down." Harry said threateningly, he stepped forward.

"Whatever you say," Taking out a pocket knife Dudley began to cut the knight into pieces. Harry ran along the reeded shore to the bridge, the reeds slowed him considerably and cut into his legs and feet like razors, he almost made it to the bridge when Dudley then tossed the knight into the river.

"No!" Harry dove into the water and grabbed it, 'it' turned out to be the knights head. It took him all day diving down to collect the pieces, the water was only ten feet deep at its best but the reeds and other plants down at the bottom made it impossible to see clearly, and the river water was murky and filthy, more then once making him gag at it's horrendous taste and smell.

He found the last piece just as the moon rose, it took even longer to find his way back home and when he did get home, he was not greeted with concern or worry at his late arrival, instead Vernon asked where he had been for dinner. "You think Petunia can cook and clean all by herself, then why do we keep you around?" He asked.

"Where is my earing, you've been gone long enough, where is it?" Petunia demanded.

"He was busy looking for toys mum." Dudley said

"Shut up!" Harry muttered, he was smacked over the head for his lip.  
>"You spent all day looking for toys instead of helping out around the house?" Petunia screeched.<br>"I have helped out, I've been helping out since first day of summer!" Harry said angrily. Harry was slammed into the wall, he knew without looking it was Vernon, he also knew why Vernon was doing this, he couldn't change it but he knew why. It was because Harry had never gone this long without some sort of retribution, a comeback, something, Vernon probably figured he had just missed it somewhere along the line or this was the come back.

He could hear Petunia but made no attempts to turn to face her. "Why you miserable little ingrate!" Petunia said crossing her arms, then her eyes locked onto Vernon's. "Are you going to allow him to talk to me this way!"

"No, no I'm not, why don't you and Dudley go out for a while." Vernon said, it wasn't a question, it was a statement, Petunia and Dudley left, for once in under two minutes, Dudley didn't even fight to bring his many toys and electronics, they just grabbed light coats and left.

The house was silent, Harry dared not look at his uncle.

"I should just kill you, you know." Vernon said, "for all the trouble you've caused me." Harry licked dry lips, his hands began to shake not with fear, not with anger, just shake, like he was cold or something.

"What would you say to that?" Vernon demanded Harry could hear him unlocking the locks on the cupboard door. "Well?"

"I'd say-" Harry didn't get to finish his answer as suddenly Vernon was pinning him to the floor, one hand around his throat the other punching him in the head. Strange noises came from his throat as he began struggling for air, he punched Vernon in the face and managed to snake out from under his heavy weight and run towards the door, he didn't make the door though as Vernon grasped him by his long hair and throw him into the cupboard at the bottom of the stairs, it was full of his wizarding supplies so he fell back out landing on his hands and knees, Vernon stepped on his back, pushing him down to the floor before reaching over him and taking the large trunk out, from his angle on the floor he could see the locks on the ground that Vernon had let fall there carelessly. The weight on his back made it near impossible to breath, he flailed his arms and legs around but could not reach Vernon's other leg, nor could he even reach up to the leg pinning him down. Harry began to see sparks and began to feel the familiar pain in his chest of lack of oxygen when suddenly he was picked up, slammed into the top of the door frame, as though Vernon had misjudged the distance between his head and the top of the door, another try and he was inside the cupboard, his feet were kicked in next, he was vaguely aware of the sound of locks being closed as well but the ringing in his head was too loud to make it out clearly.

Minutes passed by, and the TV sounded, the light from the screen filtered through the small opening and revealed his book, he grabbed it and with nothing better to do, wrote in it. His hands still hurt too much to comfortably write but by this point he didn't care, he had decided he would write and that's what he did. The news said it was 1 am, so he wrote for the next day.

Day 39 (Wed)

_Once upon a time, _  
><em>There was a King and Queen, the queen had a son, little did she know the evil she had birthed, she may have drowned him right then but perhaps not for she was a queen of hope and a queen of beauty she believed in everything good including giving second chances and forgiving horribly bad deeds, deeds that perhaps you yourself could not forgive. <em>

_The first year, she had to have seen the signs but she refused to heed them and as the darkness grew across her lands sending her further and further from all that she loved she refused to give her child up as the monster that he was. One evening the keeper of the darkness came out to claim the child as his own still the queen and king refused to give the baby up to him._

_And so both died. Their lives lost but perhaps they were better off for it so that they would not ever see what their baby would become. The baby grew up in the Dursley's kingdom, alone and unloved, just like he deserved. And when he was rescued to the lands of King Dumbledore it was decreed that he was to return to the Dursleys for 60 days every year as penance for his parents lives. King Dumbledore gave the child everything he wanted, even knighted him Sir Severus and fed him well, but every year he had to go back..._

Harry had to stop writing, his casted arm was killing him, his face and throat were killing him, everything was killing him, he tossed the book to his feet and tried to stretch out. It failed, not enough room, angry and upset Harry rolled over, with some real effort put in, crunched into a tight ball and pretended he was somewhere else.

Snape  
>Snape hadn't thought about the book in weeks. Life had returned to normal and once more he was occupied by potions, just as he liked so when he found the book in a desk drawer, it surprised him, he took the book, hesitated to open it, but a cauldron began to bubble just then and so he put the book down on the top of the desk and attended his potions.<p> 


	11. Day 40

**Here it is, Enjoy! Please review after reading and tell me any thoughts, comments, loves and hates, was there an inconsistency? I want to know! As always thank you for reading and have yourselves and very nice day!  
><strong>

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><p>Day 40 (Thurs)<p>

Petunia hummed as she dusted, Harry sat locked in the cupboard under the stairs, still attempting to find some way that his precious knight could be put back together with the mediocre supplies he had to work with. This included no glue or even tape and a casted and very swollen hand. The sharp rap on the door made Harry jump and bang his head off the slanted roof, he had turned so that his feet now had more room, it beat his legs being crunched to cramping. He shifted around as quickly as possible to get a glimpse at who was at the door. It was the most interesting thing to happen in a while and he needed something to distract him from himself. By the time he righted himself Petunia was already at the front door and had already slammed it closed again.

He could not see her face, she was backing up towards him though, her hands shaky. Suddenly the door blew open like a gigantic foot had kicked it from the hinges. It blew off so hard that his aunt fell backward into the door of the cupboard, she quickly ran into the living room pointing, just pointing to where Harry was, her lips looked like they might be mumbling something incoherent or perhaps she was sobbing silently, he couldn't be sure. One thing was certain, someone had come for him.

It had to be a death eater, somehow after all this time they had managed to find him at last. The door was pulled but the locks held, they may look small and weak but his uncle had made sure they were strong enough to hold up against even his temper-tantrums. The pull came harder this time, and more suddenly but the locks held. Harry pressed himself against the opposite wall, unsure of what to do, trapped in a confined space with a broken arm, no wand and an eye nearly swollen shut the enemy more then had the advantage, fighting would be more comical than valiant. The door was silent and still for three breaths and then...

There was a shriek of bright light directly into his gaze, he brought his uninjured hand up to block the light but it was grabbed and roughly brought down. He did not fight it, if he was still alive then he wasn't about to be killed, a simple bambarda spell would have both effectively taken the door off and also killed or seriously wounded him so the visitor meant him no harm, yet.

It took moments for his eyes to adjust, the person knelt in front of him and when at last he could see, he gaped.  
>"Professor Snape?" His voice sounded hoarse not from lack of water, probably due to lack of speech but possibly and even more likely, from hurting his neck and throat.<p>

He had never seen the look that was on Snapes face just then, he had never seen it on anyone and had no clue as to what it meant. He half expected it to morph into a sneer at any moment but could just as easily imagine it morphing into tears as well. Unsure of what to say or do he sat up more, corrected his clothes with his casted arm since Severes still had a hold of his good hand, and tried his best to pretend all was good. When he could not do that he looked down, he knew his face was all swollen and dirty, he hadn't been able to wash it at all.

Snape took Harry's face by the chin, "You are not being blamed for your parent's deaths." Of all the words to say, Harry would never have thought Snape would say those words, if anything Snape would believe the exact opposite.

Shocked Harry had to know, "But you always-" Suddenly there was a loud crack and Snape fell down, in his last conscious moments he ensured he did not harm Harry as he fell, instead, backwards to the ground. Petunia stood with a baseball bat in both hands ready to strike again if he so much as moved. Her face was pure shock and fear, her eyes stayed on Snapes back until she was sure he would not be waking up soon, then they slowly made their way to Harry and her expression changed dramatically, from fear and shock, to anger and murder.

"You called for help didn't you?" She screamed at him, then her eyes darted to his side and she stepped over the unconscious wizard and reached into the cupboard, Harry instinctively flinched but her hand went right by him and gabbed something much more precious to him, she pulled back his journal.  
>"This is it isn't it? This is how you informed them to come!" She accused<p>

"No I swear I didn't call for help, I don't know why he's here." Harry said pleadingly. There was a small sound and thats all Petunia needed to jump back up and swiftly kick Snape right in the head. Without thinking Harry leapt forward and tackled her into the next room. Sadly the noise they heard was not that of Snape waking up, he had been awake and with the sense to hold still until the opportune moment before being kicked hard enough to nearly kill him. What they heard was Dudley stepping onto one of the potted plants in the front because he was too busy looking at his new phone and trying new gadgets on it.

Vernen opened the door to see an unconscious wizard on the ground, -he could recognize it by his wardrobe choice- But more importantly to him, to also see Harry currently attacking his wife, in three steps and he grabbed Harry by the back of his neck and threw him back into the ugly floral couch, Harry was grateful for the landing but he did not have much time to ponder it as Vernen flipped him over to face him almost an instant later, his fist held high and coming down to land on Harry's ear, he turned his head away, his ear rang painfully but at least it wasn't his nose. Before Vernen could do it again Petunia stopped him, her bony arms wrapping around his bigger arm.

"No! You can punish him later, right now we have to go, we have to leave. We don't know how many he called to come."  
>"You did that." Vernen said gesturing to professor Snape.<br>"No, I didn't, I have no idea why he's here." Harry said honestly.  
>Vernen grabbed him by the collar. "Ill deal with you later boy." He turned away. "Go upstairs and pack your things, all of you right now, Harry you'll help Dudley and then Petunia." As though receiving orders from the prime minister, they ran to it.<p>

Half an hour later they were off in the car. Harry had looked to were Snape was last, in front of the closet but hadn't seen him, Vernen had moved him. He had no idea whether he was alright or not. Petunia had kicked him pretty hard, and that was after the bat, who knew how hard that was, it certainly had sounded hard.

While packing he had managed to fit his book in his shopping bag he had been allowed to bring. Dudley packed absolutely everything he owned and Petunia had three large bags herself so Harry was forced to have his bag on his lap, but at least he got to bring a bag. Vernen took out a bunch of cash from the bank and drove. It was much like that time before first year, he kept driving and mumbling, changing direction, even changing cars, he traded to a completely other car payed for in cash, transferred their stuff and drove on, and on. Morning turned to noon, noon turned to evening and then to night time, Dudley wailed he was starving to death, they hadn't stopped for food and none of them had any breakfast, since they were shopping for breakfast that morning.

Finally Vernen stopped at a restaurant, he parked the car and got out, but only so that he could turn around, "Not you boy, you'll stay here out of trouble and mind you Ill know if you try anything again!" He almost yelled the last part before departing, Petunia and Dudley were both standing at the door of the restaurant, they went in together and finally Harry could take out his journal and start writing

_Day 39 or something_

_Sir Severus was in his room's, recouping from a recent battle when he recieved a mysterious visitor. This visitor was from King Dumbledore's land though whether he is friend or enemy Sir Severus did not know. This visitor rivals in creating unhappiness for Severes and yet claims he does not blame him for his mother's death. His advice created more questions than answered anything. _

_Being in love with Sir Severus' mother, and given his history with Sir Severus, he had assumed this visitor would be the first to point fingers or even avenge her death one day. At the very least verbally blame him outright as he had done through actions for so many years. This made no sense to Severus. Why had the visitor come? Before he could ask anything the Queen herself killed the visitor, or at the very least attempted to and then demanded they move, trade castles believing that the visitor was a sign of King Dumbledore's wrath King Vernane quaked in terror and had his entire court on the move._

Harry paused, there was nothing much to add, so much had happened but he had pretty much covered it. And just in time, he saw the Dursleys coming out and quickly stashed the journal back inside his bag. They came in and gave him a bag of left overs before driving off wordlessly. Dudley continued poking and pinching him but his mind went back to the day Aunt Petunia had told him of the true reason Snape hated him so much.

It had been last year and he had been very upset to see he had failed potions.

"Curse Snape, may he-" Realizing he wasn't alone he hadn't finished the thought.

Petunia looked at him with beedy eyes, "you're talking about Severes Snape? He teaches at that school, figures." She then told him, through taunts and rude phrases made throughout summer last year, his mother's story with Snape and his love for Lily. Harry knew Snape hated him, the reason why though, was now under more question than it had been a year ago when he had not known anything about Snape knowing his mother.

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><p><strong>Snapes' POV is coming up and it will answer how he figured out the stories were real, why he was at the house, if he survived etc, I look forward to hearing from you, I worked really hard to ensure it all made sense, very few errors etc.<strong>

_**~BloodInkLilacQuill**_


	12. Day 41

Day 41 (Fri)

McGonagle sat by the fire with Snape telling him what each and every helper was doing to try and find Harry. She was keenly aware that Snape had not wanted this many people to be involved but she knew it was for the best, the more helpers the more chances that they would find Harry sooner rather then too late. She was also keenly aware that Snape had stopped listening just moments before.

_Snape was back to when he had come up to the Durlseys door, he knocked politely and waited. Petunia answered the door and had shown him in unconventionally. He walked toward her, if only with thoughts to calm her down, he had only come to tell Harry his parents deaths were not his fault. To the rest of the problem, he had been blissfully unaware, that the journal had been anything but an amusing story but that one part, it hit a little too close to home for him to not investigate.._

_But Petunia was terrified and something was not right, he looked around the room, nothing was out of place or looked wrong and then he looked to where Petunia was pointing she seemed terrified, she'd been too scared to even speak. She just pointed, to the closet. Hesitantly Snape went over to the closet without a word. He tried to pull the door open but it was stopped by a deadbolt, he opened the deadbolt with a flick of his wand and tried once more but the door was stopped once more by a brake at the bottom corner of the door, he wordlessly spelled the brake to come up and, after taking a final glance around for any more surprises, he took a deep breath and opened the door. _

_He half expected this to be where they kept Hedwig, it was not fit for an animal but made sense to Petunia's panic. What he saw made him shutter even just thinking of it. Harry was pressed against the back wall, his face was bruised and cut up, at one point his nose had been bleeding, the blood had dried but not been washed off and so the trail went from his nose past his lips and down his throat right to his old gray shirt and stained the front._

_It was obvious he had been there a while, his eyes were squeezed shut against the light, one was swollen shut. He brought his hand up to block the light but Snape easily brought it back down. Unaware he kept a hold of the hand as he observed the boy. When Harry's eyes finally did adjust his face morphed into a gape, his mouth fell open in shock, "Professor Snape?" His voice sounded scratchy and soar, his neck was an assortment of different colored bruises. Many expressions crossed his face, disbelief and fear were dominant though. He tried to right himself up, fixed his clothing, it did not go beyond Snapes observations that his arm was casted. At last he looked down, too embarrassed to be looked in the eye._

_Feeling the boy would be listening, Snape took him by the chin, raised his head and told him the message he had come to tell him. "You are not being blamed for your parent's deaths." He heard a noise behind him, Petunia had well been forgotten by then. Harry took hold of his attention again but whatever he had been about to say was lost as a red-hot pain flashed across his skull and into his vision._

_His last thought before collapsing was to not fall into Harry, the way he had been crouching into the closet it took an extraordinary amount of willpower. He did not remember hitting the ground but he imagined he had only been out for a moment or two because when he came back he heard Petunia yelling at Harry, who was still inside the closet. She had in her hand, Harry's journal. There was a sound at the front door and quick as a flash she kicked him in the side of the head. Beyond that was all blurry, Harry had been by his side at one point, or at least Snape thought, perhaps he stepped over Snape, figures._

He woke a little when he was being dragged down some steps by an arm and then the person left and he remembered being very cold. When he fully woke up it was morning again, his head throbbed painfully, he barely managed to call for help, didn't have a clue for who he had called, still it came as a very large surprise when McGonagle came in.

He had been in the basement of the Dursleys house, she'd already checked the area and found that the Dursleys had moved residence. She helped him back to the school and even to the hospital wing, and more importantly she had listened to what had happened and even hadn't mentioned the rules about reading personal information on students without consent.

Snape looked at the book, checking for anything new, he already knew if there had been he would have seen the book glow but he had to check anyway. For the hundredth time he cursed himself for not putting a tracker onto the book or some sort of finding ability but the spell he had used was the exact one the ministry of magic used when signing important papers that went public, untraceable beyond attempt. Even the wards up to find him were blocked, being an underaged wizard he was supposed to have precautions set up for just such an instance as this but no, there was nothing they could use to find him, the wards of him being with his family blocked all tracing ability.

They had followed all leads and so far hadn't found him. Other then checking random houses, all they could do right then was wait for another entry. The rescue crew involved everyone who cared about Harry. Ron and Hermione were in it, checking hotels all across the UK and most of the teachers were helping.

Mood eye was with Lupin searching abandoned houses and attempting spells to help weed out where Harry was. The Weasly's were talking to anyone that knew the Dursleys in hopes they had contacted anyone they knew and even more wizards and witches were simply travelling in the same direction that they had taken Harry and searching out everywhere they could until more clues came in. It was all long shots they knew but many lives are saved daily by long shots, they just hoped Harry would get that lucky.

"What made you realize that the entry you read was about Harry?" McGonagle asked suddenly, she was reading the first few entries, and had not gotten that far.

"He specifically mentioned the Dursleys and Dumbledore both, it would take an idiot to miss that. What I didn't understand in time was that the entire book was a journal." Snape said.

"You really cannot blame yourself for that, even I would have never caught that this was real life, his world is so.. so imaginary that the link between our is near impossible to make out without further information." McGonagle said, Snape was quiet for a long time.

"I wasn't even going to read the entry at first." He mused more to himself than to the companion to his right. "I honestly can't say what prompted me to open the book and read the entry. I just couldn't sleep, and wanted to read something to help me, the moment I read it, I knew I had to speak to Harry, it was evident no one had, spoken to Harry about that night, the night he lost his parents." McGonagle patted his hand reassuringly, she knew there was nothing to be said to make him feel better.

Without warning the book began to glow once again, they had nearly given up that he even had the book with him anymore it was so late into the night. Both jumped to their feet and rushed to the book, they opened it and watched as the writing appeared...

Harry looked around the dingy house they were staying in, he had been cleaning it all day under the careful watch of all three Dursleys, all of which had nothing better to do. Every cobweb had been taken down, every bug killed and finally, nearing six o'clock he was able to put all of the cleaning supplies, the vacuum, the mop and broom, everything all away. He had made dinner as well but the Dursleys for once, were all to scared to eat, they kept looking out the windows and jumping at every sound.

The place wasn't that bad actually, it had Victorian wall paper that was coming down in long strips here and there, a chandelier that had long lost all of its previous glory, someone had stripped it of all glass and crystal, empty antique frames hung on the walls and the floor was stripped completely bare to the wood planks left unfinished, uncared for. There was an old couch and bed but no other furniture to be found, still the house had a warm vibe Harry found, he actually quite liked it. Petunia on the other hand, found it creepy among other things.

"We didn't lose them the last time." Vernen kept mumbling to himself, this time he had actually read a bit about wizard protection and he said he had done something to rid them of their tracers. Pretending to need the utilities, Harry took his bag and went into the bathroom. He opened the book, about to write but Dudley started pounding on the door, Harry was forced to wait, he put the pen inside as a bookmark and closed the book once more, put it back into the bag and opened the door.

"What were you doing in there?" Demanded Dudley.  
>"Nothing I just had to go."<br>"I heard you going through that bag." Accused Dudley.  
>"Yeah I was just changing for supper." Harry said trying to get past Dudley once more.<br>"Your clothes are the same." Dudley took him by the shirt and dragged him to Petunia who was currently peeking out the window between the thick gray curtain and the wall, she jumped shakily at Dudley's sudden talking. "Mom, Harry's lying about something, he went into the bathroom and rummaged through that bag and lied about it."  
>Petunia grabbed the bag from Harry's hand and opened it, then she dropped it onto the floor.<br>"Its just clothes stop being a baby." Harry was stunned, Petunia went back to window-watching but Dudley got angry. Harry could see a Dudley fit pretty far off and this would be a big one. Dudley jumped up and crashed down on the floor, Petunia jumped back against the wall her face near yellow in fear. Another jump and Dudley went straight through the floor, only to be stopped by both Harry and his mom.

Harry had hold of Dudley's right hand and Petunia had hold of his left, together they tried to pull him up and out of the whole his own weight had created.  
>"Vernon! Vernon!" Called Petunia.<br>"Sht! Or they might hear us!" Vernen said rushing into the room, his face purple and contorted in panic and anger. It took all three of them to pull Dudley out of the hole, they had just managed to get him out of the whole when a knock came at the door, soft but firm.  
>"Oh no, they've found us!" Vernen said, Dudley jumped to his feet and as though in afterthought Vernen turned and shoved Harry down the hole before he could properly get back up.<br>"What are you doing?" Petunia shouted  
>"Buying us time," Explained Vernen, attempting to shove Harry down the hole of unknown depth, Harry spread his arms and legs so as to make it as difficult as possible. they are after him, the longer it takes for them to get him out the longer we have to run!" Petunia nodded and took hold of both of Harry's left arm and leg, Vernen did the same to the right. It was only then that Harry started to shout, he felt sort of dumb for it but he shouted for someone to rescue him anyway. It was likely only a three or four foot drop but he didn't care he did not want to fall. He faught with all his strength but in the end the two adults won and managed to get him into the hole.<p>

Well at least it wasn't a four foot drop Harry thought as he fell back far beyond four feet, though he couldn't later think why he hadn't wanted it to be a four foot drop. He hit the ground and knew no more for quite some time. Dudley kicked Harry's bag into the hole, as they picked up their bags and ran out the backdoor.

Harry became aware, first of how far away the hole in the floor was above him, a good twenty or more feet, he had fallen further before, then he became aware of the pain in his left leg and chest. He had broken ribs before and could have bet anything that he had broken some now, he also suspected his leg was broken. He tried to call for help but all that came out was a voice barely above a whisper. All he could hope was that the person who had knocked truly had been of the wizarding world and that the person would come in and investigate the hole in the living room. As moments turned into minutes, it became clear that who ever had knocked was not about to investigate any further. Harry began to lose consciousness. Harry was about to fall into the void when he startled awake, no if he let himself go there was no telling who would help him, or when, it might be too late. He sat up and started to think of a way out of there.

He fumbled around for anything he might find that could help and came across his bag, it must have been kicked in after him. He opened the back exploringly, he found clothes, which were wrapped around the important stuff, that's how Petunia rarely found what he had. He found his Journal and the rest of the cake the Weasley's had given him. He opened his journal as he ate the cake, he hadn't eaten all day and was very hungry.

_Sir Severes ate the rest of the cake the Weasels had given him, unsure of when he would next see freedome, next be free. He was trapped, injured and possibly dying all he could do was wait and hope someone somewhere would happen upon him. Or perhaps he was destined to die where he fell, his final punishment and finally he might have had his redemption that he has wanted for as long as he can remember, to die already partially burried, seems a fitting fate for such a man as he. Perhaps in some years to come he would be found and lain to rest next to his beloved mother and father who simply hadn't known better then to create him. He sincerely hoped he wasn't found due to a foul smell, that would be awful._

_Sir Severes had been through so much, even bigger and worse things than this but the possibility that this might be his last adventure was a spear of fear in the old heroes heart. Of all the ways to die, this was unexpected not to mention boring, sitting bleeding to death at the bottom of a well with no one around but himself. Well the old heroes getting tired, its time perhaps, that he catches some sleep._

Harry put the book down but with no intention of going to sleep. He was going to get out if it killed him.

A lone lady dressed in a beige pen skirt and matching top knocked once more on the door before turning away, a freshly baked apple in both hands, ready to welcome the new neighbors she had seen rush into the house with their belongings. 'Well if they were going to be rude,' she thought, 'then they were not going to be invited to that Sunday's barbecue, she went back to her house and put the pie back onto the pie tray.

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><p><strong>Thank you to all of my reviewers! And thank you for the wait, I see Ill have to upload my own chapters, getting help to do it is just... too unreliable.<strong>

**Cara-Tanaka - Thank you and I have! Next chapter needs buffing now that I read it but will be up soon!**

**Merrr - Thank you! Amazing is such a... special word to use I'm blushing, quite literally.**

**Musicgall100189 - The hunt is on!**

**EtherielBlitz - I have a feeling your going to love my next chapter, it's really something if you liked my last chapter**

**Brigit - Thanks!**

**Agoge - Harder than you think! His owl can only sense where Harry would go if it were up to him if you've noticed, going to the Leaky Cauldron, well even the ministry knew he would turn up there and in the battle Hedwig died in, despite all the polyjoice potions of harry the owl was smart enough to know Harry's behavior and so could 'read' which was the real Harry. Hope that covers it all for you :D**

**T.y.u.i.t.y.u.i. - :D**

**Crazy-About-Books - Im always ecstatic to welcome new readers to my humble corner, please take a seat and enjoy yourself! I also have another story alike to this one you may enjoy titled 'Misguided Hope'. I hope you enjoy my other story and this chapter as much as you have enjoyed this story so far. Thank you for your beautiful review it really warmed my heart to read it.**

**Spellsword166 - Thank you for your kind words, as for your concern I did not notice that it took Snape hours to read the entries I really tried to keep it 'real' but there are some instances where he would have taken his time like in the carriage with Trelawney, he was avoiding her, or when he fell asleep reading the entry, are you sure those are not the times you are referring to?**

**Thank you all for your reviews, it really makes my day, sometimes my whole week.**


	13. Day 42

**I am SO sorry this took so long to get done. I honestly didn't think anyone cared about my story and so when my computer's motherboard burned out I left my computer in a storage room for a good... two years? The next chapters were only saved on that computer and I was not really in a rush to get it. Well Larisya messaged me privately and asked that I post the next chapter, so I sent my computer in to get fixed. That was months ago, and finally after much bugging and torturing my personal computer geek finally owned up that the story is forever lost, Im sorry guys. Ill try to rewrite the story. If there are inconsistencies please be kind, I did write this story over four years ago.**

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><p>Harry woke up sweaty and cold, the sound of his breathing echoed all around him sounding almost like a panting animal. He could barely breath and he was shaking so violently he was scaring himself. He did not want to die, not down here in this random hole in the ground, left to rot. He tried to sit up, it was a struggle, not only was his cast bulky and heavy but his chest was so tender the movement took almost all of his will and strength.<p>

When he was sitting up, he pulled his journal towards him and searched for his pen. He found his pen under his leg and after a minute of drawing circles to get the pen to work, he began to write. He had to really focus his eyes, the light was terrible and his glasses were gone, smashed probably.

_Lord Severus contemplated what had gone on to lead him to where he was, at the bottom of a well dying a horrible and agonizing death._

_Sir Severus had always envisioned dying, it had been a threat given to him everyday since before he could remember, except when he was back home, there were some days back home where he never had to have such fears. But of all the deaths he had envisioned, or been threatened with, he would have never imagined this was his fate. Then again who would ever imagine anyone would fall down a well and be left to die, slowly bleeding and suffocating to death?_

_It all began one morning when a great hero from Severus's land came to visit him. The king of the land demanded that the entire court go into hiding, that included Severus. They ran all day not stopping no matter who complained. They passed by the standing stones and only stopped when at last the summer set.  
><em>

_They were not allowed to rest long though as a knock on the door caused a skittish king to shove Lord Severus down the well in the hopes it would buy him time to escape, it was all for nothing, whatever the king was running from showed no face but the fall had injured Lord Severus and so he lay dying an unhonored death, never to see his beloved country again, never to hear his friends voices or see their faces, worst of all he would never again feel that contented happiness of just being home. The feeling that so many people took forgranted, even himself sometimes._

_He would miss that most of all-_

Harry had to stop writting for a minute as he realized, he wasn't making it up anymore, he had given up and he hadn't even realized it yet, he was dead down here, unable to call for help, injured beyond what he could fix with what he had. He really was going to miss home, hogwart's sounds and smells, the smell of his four poster bed, the main hall, Hagrid, the great Christmas trees during the winter. The sounds of many children running to get to class, through the echoing halls. He began to cry, he hurriedly wrote it all down, calling Hagrid 'the small giant.'

_Most of all he would miss the people of his homeland, he wished he could have another chance to say everything he wanted to say, how much everyone helped him to forget this dreadful place, how they never judged him, and what that meant to him._

He could not both cry and breath and so before he could finish his thoughts he passed out, the book slid from his casted grasp and landed on his filthy soaked shirt, his hand still grasping the pen slid into his lap.

Severus was speaking with Minerva when the book began to glow again, Hermione was the one to first notice, she called out and was soon encircled.

"He's dying!" Minerva whispered brokenheartedly, she reached behind her until she felt her seat and then sat in shock.

"But where is he?" Asked Ron, Hermione took the book from Severus and read it's contents carefully.

Everyone else made plans to try their spells once more or go to the library to find something that would work.

Severus stood watching the two friends at the table, they read the story searching for clues. He couldn't stop feeling this was partially his fault, he should have seen this before, heck he should have never let Petunia get the drop on him like that, he was just so shocked, he couldn't believe he used to think Harry had a perfect life, idoled by his family... How could he have been so blind?

He tried to move past these thoughts, he would have the rest of his life to feel bad about all of this, he did not want to have Harry's death on his conscious as well.

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><p>Ramen-luver101- You'll see next chapter ;) It's going to be done soon I won't leave you waiting<p>

Dyani91- Yes maim!

Larisya - as promised, say I know a Larrisa in life, you wouldn't happen to be her would you?

Reader-anonymous-writer - um Im not sure if your insulting me or complimenting me ... however to answer some things, this was written before that book came out I believe I tried to change a few things to accommodate but that's the truth of it, but lets just say for stories sake, he married into the family, it counts. Beauty and the beast is, by far, my favorite story in existence, it had to be included. Surprised people let down their guards and can be more easily attacked so Petunia could get the drop on him as he realized his entire fantasy of Harry was crashing. As long as they didn't pay for the cast, they wouldn't care if he came in with one on.

Strider - Strider?! The strider?

PenNameless1994 - It'll be over soon no worries

LeoLovely - Thank you! I would never intentionally force someone to beg but you are the reason I put effort into writing the next few chapters and not just posting a summery. Hey did you know you messaged 11/11/11 at 11 am?

Soulmore - Thank you!

Zireael07 - brilliant, thank you I tried to make the story as intriguing as possible, so sad about the rest of the chapters, there were some awesome mind bogglers in there

Musicgall100189 - I always wondered that, lol just kidding, I have moved around a lot as a child, as an adult not so bad but as a child, yeah lots of homes, and I often stayed at houses that were broken down, once there was a hole in the floor in the laundry room and it just seemed to go on forever. Someone told me it was an old cellar for storms/tornadoes and storing food before that. I just tried to implement that knowledge of old houses into this house

and finally Robbie - what was your message again? Oh yes, well Im sorry it is so late, I hope you didn't hold your breath and I am sorry for keeping you and everyone waiting. The next chapter will not take another two years to come out.


	14. Day 43

**I am SOOOOO sorry it's taken so long, first there was an easter drama like no other, and for those who have complicated family drama's, you know what Im talking about, the rest of you, well I just can't discuss it, it'll make your head explode. It would be gory, very gory.  
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**And then I just couldn't get it right... anyway now it's all good... I think...  
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><p>A lone red headed girl sat reading a book at a large oak table covered in scrolls, maps and books. A giant fireplace behind her and stone walls making the place look like a castle right from the pages of a medieval story.<p>

Ginny looked lonely there sitting by herself. She studied the copies of the journal's last entry, reading it over and over.  
>Severus sat at the table in front of her. "Find anything yet?"<p>

She looked up in a quick glance before looking back down at her work.  
>"Nothing." She looked up again this time he could tell her thoughts had changed off of Harry, if only for a moment. "You know I never thanked you for doing this, and I know Harry will never say it."<p>

"Thanked me for what?" Severus said, he was exhausted, it felt like fatigue was eating away at his bones.

"For... well for doing something, your the last person anyone would think could care about this sort of thing." She said, she immediately regretted it, he could see it on her face.

"What specifically surprises you? That I would do this for ? I assure you I would be just as diligent for any other abuse case."  
>She was now utterly distracted from her search but he did not remind her to stay on track. In truth so many people were working on it that they both felt they weren't really going to add anything to the search just then, the best aurors were on it.<p>

"That's not it, though Im sure many are surprised you would take action if a child were being abused I mean you come across as a man who hates children so much he just wouldn't care." She turned to him, the map now attached securely to the wall. "What I'm surprised at is you would go to such trouble for Harry, I would have thought you'd be cheering on his... misfortunes." She looked at him directly now, no shame in what she had said, what she had suggested, a true child merely asking a question.

He went forward and tapped the map with his wand, it grew dramatically in size, he noticed it was a muggle map and with interest traced some of the familiar towns. It's not that wizards had different names for these towns but often they forgot about a town here and there, the muggle world is big but the wizarding world is much bigger, often there is one or two wizard towns between each town, invisible to the human eye but on a wizard map, it grows very confusing.  
>"I would never wish misfortunes on any child and I have on occasion in the past, gone through steps to rectify said misfortunes that were shared with me." Snape said. He sat back down and watched Ginny look at the map.<p>

"Students shared such things with you?" She asked looking at him, "you don't really have that, persona of being able to share things with." In truth he had learned by other means, behavior, injuries, overhearing things.

"But aren't we sharing now?" He asked, she smiled and nodded. A houseelf came in soon after, he did not break their polite silence but he did leave hot chocolate for them both.

"Hey did you know Wells is a town? And from private drive..." She traced the drive with her fingers, "it passes the Stonehenge?"

He stood up, it was possible it was clues left like that but... he doubted it. Still it was the closest they had gotten to a lead all night. He read the map to check her facts and found them accurate, with a nod he turned to leave.

A small hand grabbed his arm, "you're not upset at what was said are you? I see now that you are nice, beneath all of.. that." she gestured to him.

"Miss Weasly, we have both been deprived of sleep, and you are a very young child. I know what you meant and I know what your intentions were, it is all alright." He left after putting a brief palm onto her shoulder.

Harry ****

Harry woke up in pain, he was cold and weak, the sun had come back up, he could see it above the hole. He reached for the pencil and pen, once both were in his hand he realized his glasses had fallen off, he reached forward but could not find them, giving up he started writing without them.

'Should anyone find this,' no, if they reading it then of course, they found it. (imagine lines go through words not underline.)  
><span>'To the finder of this message'<span>  
><span>'To whom so finds this message<span>' Really?

Why leave a salutation anyway, what are they going to judge my dead bones for poor etiquette?

'If you are reading this, I'm dead, no please don't scream or cry and if you haven't found me, well you have a nasty surprise coming at you from the left.

You see I was murdered, it might have been my cousin, who pushed me down here, my aunt and uncle for allowing him to get away with so much including leaving me down here after I fell. Or it could be my friends for knowing about this whole thing and not doing anything about it. Well at least two friends anyway. It could be the teachers's fault [yeah I know that's poor English Im dying so sue me] for not being available for me to talk to, except miss McGonagle, I just couldn't trouble such a nice grandmother figure. I could name a bunch of people and situations that should have been done differently but the thing is, it happens, life is life and it's going to do what it does whether we like it or not.

Now this could be the headache talking, lack of water and poor oxygen but I can't wrap this in pretty words because the problem is that so much could have been done but wasn't and now I can't. I could have trusted someone, I had the chance but I was so worried about everybody else's problems. To be honest, I didn't want my precious time away from misery and into happiness to be taken away. I didn't want the world that saw me as I always wanted to see myself to see me the way I see myself, as weak, as pathetic as a freak.'

He stopped, the shaking was too bad to even hold the pencil and he felt he was about to throw up. He tried to calm down, close his eyes and relax, breathing was getting hard and his mouth was so dry His vision was getting too dark to see by.

Snape ****

Snape and the rest of the aurors were searching the town of Wells house by house, site by site looking for Harry.

He was called back as the journal had begun to glow once more. By the time he got back everyone had already read the entry, He was about to read it himself when moody came in, he shook his head, Snape put down the book slowly.

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><p><strong>Thank you for your patients, the rest is nearly finished and will be posted very soon! This is the second last chapter.<br>**

**Please Read and Review!  
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	15. Found

**Oh my goodness, I spent all easter friday writing the last chapter, uploaded it to the site and called it quits, only to now learn that in my three am rattled brain I didn't upload it to the story, are. you. kidding. me.**

**I was looking forward to reading the reviews and everything but a... misfortune occurred and I am only now getting back to the things I love.**  
><strong>So here it is that last chapter that should have been posted so long ago. I understand if you hate me please dont take it out on this story.<strong>

**So to even further put this off I just want to recap, I started this story not even owning a pair of shoes, last week I got my own bedroom set, an actual bed set to call my own. I now own my own furniture, rent my own basement from a guy that one could call a lech but I don't let it bother me. I even have my own cat now, and a snake (the lech is afraid of snakes, I have called this snake Hannibal) I also own three budgies that are the worst pets ever -seriously never get a budgie, go straight for a parrot, finch whatever. I plan on selling the budgies, look at me owning and selling stuff.**  
><strong>I own enough stuff that my room can get -and currently is- messy which I both love and hate. I have no idea what to put in my nightstand but the dresser is the best invention in human history, I think anyway. And yeah,... that's where I am in life, I even got an heirloom.<strong>

**I also apologize, my 'R' button is broken as are most of my keys but with this one I have to copy/paste it and sometimes old habits make me press the 'R' instead of past it.**

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><p>So onto the story:<p>

After reading the entry, they went back to the town of Wells with new vigor, they each took a house and were willing to total it if it meant they would find Harry. The entire town was put under a sleep hex.

"Found something!" Moody yelled out, Snape was in the next house, it's occupants were asleep in their beds, the whole town of Wells had been put under, the outcome was eerily quiet and so even from the other house Severus had heard him. He ran out of the house, and into the house Moody had slunk into, he ran so fast he nearly fell into the hole, in the floor, he could only guess Moody was talking about the whole when he had shouted. He lit up his wand and peered down, the light touched Moody's head, he was crouched and from the angle he was at, Snape could not see what Moody was doing.

"Is he down there?" Snape asked. Moody didn't answer. When he did come up the first thing that was brought up was the book, it flew out of the hole and landed open face-down. The cover and the pages were the color of blood. He didn't remember kneeling but the next moment he was at the hole peering down, shouting for an answer, the book in his hands.

There was a pounding so loud he probably could not hear his reply even if he gave one. The pounding he realized somewhere in the back of his mind was his heart. It got so loud it was overwhelming and then- Moody came out and there was silence, grave-like silence so strong it was smothering. Breath didn't come to him, thought abandoned him, all that mattered was if Harry was ok.

Moody looked up his face solemn, heartbroken in grief, one arm holding himself up through the hole, half his body.

"Say it." Someone said, it could have been him, it could have been a stranger. Moody shook his head, his hand was red with blood, smudges of bloody handprints were all around the hole as he pulled himself out, slowly, wearily.

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><p><strong>Next chap is done and being uploaded Im just waiting... jk it's about to be posted in five or ten minutes<strong>


	16. Peaceful Rest

**Told you you wouldn't have to wait long! Here it is, lengthened to appease you. I had stopped it at 'Day 1' but now I have written the rest in hopes I am forgiven for my lateness in posting.  
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><p>Harry put the trunk into the car, Hedwigs' cage was already in the back seat. The Dursleys had moved back into their house that day unpacking their car, as he packed his stuff back into the Josh's car. If they recognized him at all they did not show it. He was ok with that, in fact he was better then ok with it, his anger at them had ebbed away as his strength grew, he no longer resented his treatment under their care and instead looked forward to the many Christmas's, birthdays and just normal days being around his new family.<p>

The Mastiff's house looked so longing inviting that it took all his willpower not to go back and stay there, his home at last. That's their last name, Mastiff he liked it and considered himself to now be part of their brood.

Natalie and Josh, her boyfriend, had rescued him, they had stuck a tracker into his cast, though he had no idea how they had managed it without his knowing. He still wore the cast, he would take it off once he got back to school, the nurse there was very good and would heal his arm in no time he knew.  
>The youngest walking Mastiff, Sarah age 2, ran outside and into his arms. He held her for a moment, breathing in her smell of a mixture of ice-cream and fun, before he set her down. He held her hand all the way to her sister, as she was prone to running out onto the road. Natalie had tears in her eyes as she took Sarah's hand. In her arms was the baby, peaceful and quiet.<p>

He knew the peace of the babe would not last, there were moments of chaos that baby and the children could make that made him want to go insane but he wouldn't trade them all for anything, not even Hogwarts if he had to chose. Yet here he was, leaving them, he knew he had to go back, he had to learn so that he could defeat Voldemort and protect this family he had worked so hard to get only to have it placed right into his hands when he needed it most.

He was more grateful to them then they would ever know. He barely remembered Josh coming down the hole, then taking him up, he had been in bad shape and was useless for the first three weeks. They took him to the hospital, he stayed there a few days or a week, he wasn't sure, but even when he was brought home he was useless. Natalie cared for him as she did her mom with the broken leg. At first he had slept on the couch, it was easier because then they could all watch him. They had treated him as if he were about to break or snap every time he moved, which he didn't mind because, he felt like he was going to break or snap every time he moved, washroom breaks were the worst. He hadn't known it but he'd sprained his ankle when he fell, he guessed since he wasn't using his foot he hadn't known, but afterward, yes he knew about it.

Luckily for everyone Natalie's older brother Mark could help out with his needs at night. He slept on the floor beside Harry when he slept on the couch. Josh came by every day at about lunchtime to help Harry out. Natalie took her family, even her mother out everyday for a picnic lunch at the park, Harry was left behind to nap and that's when Josh would come in and help him out. They had been generously kind in every way to him. When he was able to move more freely he had started to help out around the house. Before long he was a part of the family.

He learned what happened to their father, he had been a soldier, but that's not what killed him, he had been in Honk Kong and gone out for a box of cookies, chocolate chip, his favorite. Someone had stabbed him right in the back just as he left the store. It was a safe neighborhood too. It puzzled him that death could happen on such a family and yet nothing ever happened to the Dusleys. He didn't wish them harm, not anymore but the Dursleys never went through random car accidents that broke a leg, or being stabbed in a safe neighborhood or nearly being run over by a motorcycle with no working breaks. He thought that perhaps good people were cursed but then another idea struck him, perhaps the Dursleys and people like them didn't deserve to have stories like those, they would live a contented little life that would go on probably longer then the average life and then they would be gone but people like Natalie and Josh and Natalie's parents, they would be remembered forever, beauty and the beast, the women who lived in a shoe (he smiled at this thought) and the soldier that died in no war. He imagined perhaps that someone would read his story one day, perhaps he would even earn a story with his own name as the title, anything could happen.

The younger children really had grown on him, he wanted to stay there at the house forever. He hugged them goodbye, Natalie, Baby Josh -Natalie had named him after an angel her mother told him, Sarah, Cloe aged 4, her identical twin Maddy and Serena who had turned six last week. Max was always working, helping to keep the house and family well fed, he had said goodbye that morning before dashing off to work one of his three jobs. Natalie had also had three jobs before her mother had gotten hurt, would be getting the cast off her leg next week and Natalie was already getting her jobs back. It made him sad that she was such a hard worker and there was nothing he could do to help them.

Somehow he got the feeling they had lived long enough without him, they would make it to his return. The car's trunk slammed closed.  
>"Well let's get going to the train station then." Josh said loudly. He kept his back to the family and they payed him no mind. It occurred to Harry that he had never seen Josh outside in daytime, just walking or standing by his car or even driving. He got into the drivers seat and adjusted the mirror so he was glaring at Harry. Suddenly obscenely grateful to Josh for not only driving him there but also being out in public, specifically children who may not yet appreciate the beast to the beauty reference, he jumped into the passenger seat. They drove onward and away. he turned and waved to them all out the window, ignoring Josh's frantic seat-belt warnings, getting louder and louder until the car slowed to a halt, he sat down and put the seat belt on, well chastised.<br>The car went onward. Josh drove as close to the station as he could, his fear of crowds, or perhaps an understanding that his face could scare people to death, prevented him from continuing. Harry pulled his stuff out himself and closed the trunk. The car drove off with a wave and Harry was left alone.  
>Once at platform 9 and three quarters he went through inconspicuously and tried to locate his friends. Not seeing anyone he knew, he went to closest abandoned room on the train, set his stuff up and pulled out a crisp new book. He had been half dazed when he was grabbed but he had told Josh to leave it behind, he now regretted his decision, he wanted to read about the day he met Natalie and the day he met Josh.<br>This book was fresher, cleaner. He opened the book to the first day, a flower was drawn in crayon and despite five younger siblings, he recognized Chloe's talent in the petals and leaves.

'Day 1'

He didn't get to write more because he saw, of all people, Snape walk past his window. He looked down at the book and scratched the line out, he was done counting days, he put the book on his seat and ran out. Glad to see that Snape was ok, he felt guilty the moment he called out though, he had left this man unconscious in the Dursley's house, Natalie had gone in for his owl, climbing in through the upstairs window that had been left open and back out the same way. He hadn't once asked her to see if perhaps someone was still in the house, possibly dying or dead. In fact he had forgotten all about Snape and his cryptically random message the moment he had gotten out of the hospital.

Snape, for his part, didn't move once Harry had called him, he didn't continue nor did he turn around, Harry ran to him and faced him.  
>"Sir, Im sorry my aunt hurt you, you surprised her."<p>

"Im glad to see you in such fine health." Snape said coldly, Harry blushed like a flirting teenaged girl. He had forgotten what state he was in when Snape had seen him.

"Well..." He began growing darker and darker, his voice shrinking, he mentioned falling, stairs, hospital, he even tried to lighten the mood with a joke that was horribly wrong and made no sense, even to his ears, he bought up a friend he even used the word 'beast' it came out in a weird jumble, something close to

"there's stairs, I fell and the hospital Natalie and the beast..." his voice got to low to hear.

"We were looking for you, all summer. Where were you?" Snape said when Harry was finally finished speaking, mostly because he was out of air.

"Close by I... why?" Harry asked.

"Why what Harry?" Snape said

"Why were you looking, -hey you called me Harry!" He cut himself off with another question.

"Harry!" Hermione and Ginny ran from behind and landed on him, literally landed on him, they must have jumped off something because they both brought him to the ground. "We all thought you were dead! We found that hole with your book and all that blood."

"Yeah my family found me, brought me to the hospital." Harry said straightening up.

"I knew you couldn't be abused, it couldn't be true." Said Ron as he punched Harry's shoulder. Harry froze, he still faced Snape and his first reaction was to look up at him, had he already told everyone? Of course he had, they had all been looking for him.

"A misunderstanding." He said, he knew Ron was not intentionally cruel or overly protected and so blind to the problems in the world, he was just optimistic to a fault and probably couldn't understand why he didn't know it was going on. They are best friends how could he miss something so huge? Harry understood this and so did not fault his best friend.

He did however blame Snape, of all the times he could have stated caring.

"Im in that cabin there, Snape and I are just discussing the matter, Ill catch up." They nodded and left, Hermione he could tell, was not convinced of the 'misunderstanding.' The moment they were inside he turned on Snape. But Snape was gone, he boarded the train with little alternative.

The ride was normal,except that instead of that giddy happy feeling where all his worries disappeared, he still felt happy to be going, but a seed of apprehension was slowly growing in his stomach. By the time they caught a glimpse of Hogwarts he felt like he should keep his mouth closed lest a tree of depression and twisted with fear should grow right out of his mouth.

There was no doubt in his mind, something bad was coming, something that was going to have to be dealt with and despite his last few happy weeks he was too tired to deal with it. He tried to consider his options, but without knowing what was coming he couldn't prepare, he couldn't even brace himself. He met up with Hagrid leading the first years, the half giant gave him a great big hug that knocked the breath out of him but otherwise did not seem to be changed at all.

"We didn't tell him." Whispered Hermione. He nodded numbly, they got on the carriage and were off. Hogwarts was eerily the same, nothing had changed, other then McGonagle looking a tad older then when they had left her, she looked at Harry with a glance before turning towards the boats carrying the first years.

He went to his seat, he was greeted but no one seemed overly joyous to see him as though they had thought never to see him again so he tried to relax, maybe it wasn't as widespread as he had thought. In the train Hermione tried to tell him not many knew but he hadn't believed her.

"After the feast we'll go to madam Pomfrey, get that bulky cast off your arm." Fred or George said.

He agreed and the feast went on as planned. In fact everything was just as it usually was for a good four months, nearing Christmas holidays.

At the end of transfiguration class McGonagle told him the headmaster would like to speak with him, and that's when at last the incident was brought up. He had tried before this but he was avoided by both the headmaster and Snape.

He went into the headmasters office and knocked on the door.

"Come in." Dumbledore sat at his desk, but he was not alone Snape stood against the wall like a shadow that was not meant to be there.

"We've been expecting you." Said Snape.

"All you need now is a cat." Said Harry, he sat in the chair directly in front of the headmaster.

"Harry, you wouldn't mind telling me what happened this summer?" Dumbledore asked politely.

"Let's hear Snape's version first." Harry said.

"I think we both know what Severus's version will be." Dumbledore said quietly.

"So what now then?" Harry asked, dread filled his gut he had just just gotten a family and now what? He was going to lose it all because one man thought he'd do his once in a lifetime good deed? He waited for Dumbledores reply, he thought he knew the answer, he was wrong.  
>Dumbledore sat forward looking Harry dead in the eye. "Now you return to your aunt and uncle with-"<p>

"Your just going to send him back!" Demanded Snape cutting Dumbledore off his voice was loud enough that Harry worried it would carry to wandering ears. It was not a question, it was worded like a question but one look at the man's eyes and you knew, it was not a question.

"He has to go back." Dumbledore said, his fingers templed.

"It's fine." Harry said, he didn't know why but he did not want to tell them about the Mastiff's.

Dumbledore's attention went to Harry and he spoke as if Severus weren't in the room. "Harry, this isn't to be cruel, you need to go back-"

"It's fine." Harry said quickly, cutting the older man off, something about the whole situation was making him feel as if he were about to break down in tears, if he didn't have the Mastiff's faces to think about he would have buckled. Despite now having a safe place to call home he was floored. It was just as he had always secretly thought, they knew he deserved to be there. They didn't know about the Mastiff's and they were still sending him back. He detached himself, he felt it in his heart, and they saw it in his face.

"I am going back, it is where I belong. This Christmas I will be going back and for ever holiday afterword." He felt himself giving up on the people he had forced into family roles in his life, the grandfather he had always wanted, Dumbledore, the grandmother, McGonagle. These people he had wanted so badly to accept him and like him just so he could pretend a few minutes a week that he had family. He had a real family now, he didn't need to pretend.

"You've changed over this summer." Severus said.

"I-" He wanted to say something witty like he had grown wiser or the world had changed, it all seemed tacky to say, corny even so he settled with, "thank you."

Snape's eyebrows rose but he made no reply.

"Harry-" Dumbledore began.

Harry stood up, cutting the old man off. "Sir, are we done here?" Dumbledore searched his eyes but must not have seen what he was looking for. He nodded, Harry left.

Once outside the door he waited, he heard Snape say something and then Dumbledore's voice rang clear, in a falsely friendly way, at least to his ears though at the moment Dumbledore could have been the kindest old man to ever have lived and Harry would have seen it as false.

"He will not be going home alone, at least in the summer, all he needs is two weeks at his aunts house, we will send a bodyguard with him, you can even go." There was more discussion uninterpretable through the thick maple door and then at last Snape came out. Standing behind the door, he Harry was not at first visible, Snape was going to opposite way.

He followed Snape until he was sure he was far enough away from the headmasters' office not to be heard.

"Eh!" He shouted, too loudly for how close he was, Snape spun around. "You sure picked a hell of a time to start caring you know that?" Snapes' eyes were somehow darker then he remembered them to be which was odd because he remembered them being pitch bottomless-pit black. "What was I the good deed of your life?" It seemed all the phrases he had come up with in his head came out his mouth.

"And how did you even know where to look in the first place? What are my magic stalker?" Ok the last one was -obviously- made up on the spot. "You've spent your entire career ensuring everyone knows you dont give a damn about their problems and then you make my private business public knowledge? Why do you hate me so much, what could I have possibly done to you in the five minutes of my life that I've known about magic?" He demanded angrily. the anger was like a fire in his gut, he hadn't even known he was so angry until just then, when the flames quickly ate away at the dread that was still there and replaced everything with near blinding fury. Hatred fueled the flame but it wasn't so much hatred toward Snape as hatred toward... he couldn't think of it.

"As a professor it is my obligation to inform your head of house and the headmaster of any abuse going on at home."

"Oh don't give me that, you may not use your fists but your as abusive as they are. You've never once treated me as anything but filth that shouldn't be there." Harry screamed. Abruptly Snape turned around and left but Harry wasn't through yet, he thought Snape was trying to get away from him, walking as fast as he was but when he rounded a corner he was grabbed by the wrist and dragged into a closet, Snape slammed the door behind him, there they stood, Snape looming over him like a wolf to a trapped rabbit.

"When." Snape demanded. His face was serious Harry realized. "Name one time."

"I can name everyday, every time you look at me. You want an example, first day."

"Who doesn't at least skim the first chapter of their textbooks? Who goes to class their first day without even knowing what the class is about!" He said.

"Those questions weren't in the first chapter and you know that, you singled me out for no reason." Harry said.

"You weren't even paying attention! Drawing in your scrolls like a child." Snape countered

"I was taking notes!" Harry said, their voices were slowly rising higher and higher, "and I was a child, we are all children in our first year or did you forget that?" His voice was normal now, even-toned but highly constrained they could both hear it.

"Or how about all those times you gave me twice the punishments of any other student."

"Do you understand, Lilly died to save you and you squander the gift like it was nothing."

It was in the way he had said his mothers name that it occurred to Harry. "You knew my mom?"

"Yes Harry, I knew your mother. We were childhood friends, I knew Petunia too but we were never friends." His face actually got softer. "We were best friends when we both got invited to Hogwarts it was a dream come true for us both."

"And then she died protecting snotty-old me." Harry said, the dreamy-softness evaporated leaving nothing but cold stone and twisted pain.

"And then she married your bully of a father, had you and sacrificed herself to save you."

"My bully of a father? My father was great he was kind to everyone!" He threw it in Snapes face.

"Your father was cruel and mean, you think Im coldhearted? Your father played a prank that nearly killed me just to get a good laugh!" Snape's eyes were impossible to read now, Harry had a nagging voice at the back on his head telling him he had pushed the older man too far, brought up too many buttons that hadn't been touched in so long they might have had cobwebs. Buttons that hadn't been pushed in so long the older man no longer had the ability to keep his head when they were pushed.

He ignored the voice countering that he was just as upset with the man.

"My father was a hero, you should take notes because that's why my mother chose him and not you. You went evil and cruel and heartless and he stayed good. You say you were her friend, I bet you hadn't thought of her in years until she died."

"I thought of her everyday, everyday nonstop. Not an hour went by without he crossing my mind."

"Then why did she have to sacrifice herself to save me? Maybe you treat me so terribly out of some warped vendetta against yourself for not being there." Harry starred the older man right in the eyes, unblinking, unshaken until the man turned away.

"We are done here." Snape opened the door and left.

Harry walked out ofter him. "Sure, ruin my life and walk away, your just like him don't be fooled!" He called out, 'him' was Vernen and although it had been even before entering the closet that he had brought him up, a glare in his direction made Harry sure Snape had known what he meant.  
>Next Harry went to the owellery, he wrote a letter each to the only people that would be honest about it, Moody, Lupin and Serious.<br>The letter was brief and to the point, past all the 'hello's' and 'how are you's' was a simple question:

_Was my father a bully in school?_

Signed,

Harry Potter

He sent them off, watching the owls fly in their different directions and then went back to the great hall to eat. He noticed Snape wasn't there and he quickly realized his appetite was nixed as well. He played with the spaghetti on his plate but in the end he just couldn't stomach the food.

* * *

><p><strong>Ok so I lengthened the chapter, it would have ended at the part with 'day one' symbolically showing that he now can't wait to be home again but that didn't show anything regarding that they all think he'd dead and how they were react to his suddenly being alive.<strong>

**Please R&R**


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